Is cyber hygiene a remedy to IPTV infringement? A study of online streaming behaviours and cybersecurity practices

Spurred by the rapid modernisation of the sector and advent of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), Audio visual (AV) piracy is at epidemic levels, with interventions having limited effect. The dominant theme in interventions to date have been around personal deterrence (i.e., the threat of legal action) and have not considered other factors that may influence an individual’s decision to consume infringing content. In this paper, we consider psychological factors, including perceptions around risk-taking, security behaviours, problematic internet use and personality traits to gain a comprehensive understanding of factors influencing engagement with IPTV, and the potential implications for cybersecurity. For this purpose, a survey was conducted with 283 participants living in the UK (age range 18 - 74, male 104), and an integrated structural equation model was constructed. Our findings showed a positive relationship between security behaviours and the perceived risk of viewing IPTV, and a negative relationship between the dark personality triad and perceived risk of viewing IPTV. They suggest that security behaviours fully mediate the relationship between problematic internet use and IPTV risk taking, indicating a potential new path forward for anti-piracy interventions with greater efficacy.