Abstract
As life becomes increasingly more digital, copying and distributing lossless copies of copyrighted material is quicker and simpler than ever. For the owners and producers of copyrighted material, there are very real implications for easier reproduction of their works. With the rise of the Internet and broadband Internet worldwide, does this increased connectivity lead to increased rates of software piracy? I approach this question with unbalanced panel data consisting of 105 nations during the time period of 2006-2009, allowing for control of unknown and immeasurable characteristics among nations. The results find that increased broadband Internet penetration rates lead to increased piracy rates.