Figures showing Australians twice as likely to pirate content as Brits ‘disappointingly high’
Andrew Maiden
A new report into piracy claims twice as many Australians as Brits have “consumed at least some content illegally”, a figure the head of the pay-TV lobby group has branded “disappointingly high”.
Of the 2,630 Australians surveyed between March and April 43 per cent admitted downloading at least one illegal form of content, compared to 21 per cent of people asked the same survey in the UK.
Free TV Australia said the report highlights copyright infringement as “a significant issue for all content publishers”, while Andrew Maiden, CEO of subscription TV lobby group Astra, said: “The rate of piracy in Australia is disappointingly high, far exceeding that in the United Kingdom, which makes you wonder why piracy is more acceptable in our culture.”
Movies were the most illegally consumed format, with 48 per cent of Australian respondents aged 12 and over saying they had breeched regulations, compared to 25 per cent in the UK.
The other main content types where infringements were noted were music, TV programmes, and video games.
More than half of all respondents said they broke the law when consuming media because it was free, and because it was convenient.
Forty-three per cent of internet users admitted they were not sure what constituted illegal material online.
The report included statistics on which factors would encourage people to stop breaking the law.
Cutting the cost of illegal content was highlighted as the main incentive (39 per cent), while 38 per cebt said legal content being more available would stop them. One in five would cease consuming illegal content if their ISP threatened to suspend their account.
The survey also provides insight into why Australians infringe
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull
The report was commissioned by the Department of Communications, with Minister Malcolm Turnbull saying: “The results also underscore the importance of governments working with industry to address infringement issues, and that a range of measures are needed to properly tackle the problem.
“Recent amendments to the Copyright Act 1968, which enable the blocking of infringing overseas websites, and complement the Copyright Notice Scheme Industry Code that is currently being developed by both rights holders and internet service providers, are part of the solution.
“However, rights holders’ most powerful tool to combat online copyright infringement is making content accessible, timely and affordable to consumers.”
Maiden added: “The report identifies price and timeliness as key factors in piracy, so we are hopeful the measures recently taken by the television industry to make content cheaper and faster will reduce theft.”
Free TV Australia said it remained committed to working with both Government and industry to implement measures “to reduce piracy and its detrimental effects on content owners”.
It added: “The research underscores the importance of the recent initiatives to fight online piracy in Australia.
“The UK has had similar measures in place for some years and these survey results support existing evidence that a multi-pronged approach to combating piracy works.”
In June the government moved to pass new piracy laws, allowing rights holders to go to court to get websites that provide access to pirated content blocked in Australia, among a number of other conditions.
Kevin Bradford
i’d change the headline to “Figures showing British people twice as likely to lie about pirating content as Australians ‘disappointing'”
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Maybe Aussies are more honest than Brits? This kind of research is dubious at best.
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“Consumed at least some content illegally” is the issue here. Not “getting all their entertainment for free.”
If you really really wanted to watch a TV show that isn’t a popular US show. If you really really wanted to watch an Indi’ flick that was a few years old. If you really really wanted an old game or a song by an obscure Swedish band then Bit Torrent [illegal] is still the best place to go. You may have Foxtel & Stan but where do you get the other stuff? The problem here is there is still no easy way to find stuff that’s not mainstream and pay to download it.
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BTW my broadband is “disappointingly slow”
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I pay for Netflix, NBA leauge pass and a VPN. Provide your content on an accessible and affordable platform like the first two and I will pay for it. Don’t and I will take it for free with the later. Check out out http://www.reviewmyvpn.com or a seedbox review site if you are hesitant about evoking lord Tone’s wrath
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Well the Brits still think of us as a colony of convicts! Maybe we are just running true to type!.
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You wrote > which makes you wonder why piracy is more acceptable in our culture.
I say > Der! It is a no-brainer. Give us decent broadband and/or show access at a fair price and we are happy to pay.
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Foxtel….worst Pocket Pirate in Aus.
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Australian TV is comparable to Italian TV (rated worst in the world with similar type content showed over and over)…. Not downloading “better content” would be criminal.
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I love how Free TV chimes in yet none of the content that people are downloading illegally is available on Free TV.
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Charging people $640 a year when they just want to watch Game of Thrones is robbery, plain and simple.
Download it illegally, watch it in HD only a few hours after the US, and then buy it on Blu Ray for $60… making sure a decent portion of your $60 makes it to HBO and the GoT production team instead of into Rupert’s bloated accounts.
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