Illegal downloaders, "undeterred"
A new survey found that despite recent legal action against online piracy, many downloaders remain undeterred and see no threat at all.
“It’s hard to get blood from a stone,” said one of the persons interviewed for the Edentify report, conducted using an open online forum.
In order to qualify participants had to be willing to admit to illegally downloading movies or music.
58 out of 100 participants admitted to either never or only sometimes paying for content. There was little sympathy for the music and screenindustries.
Edentify claims that comments such as “when you see many artists making millions of dollars in profits, you think consumers are being ripped off” were common, connecting illegal downloads to a sense of value and fairness.
The report found that “the fact that a high quality store bought DVD or CD, where packaging and distribution costs needed to be considered, was a similar price to a legitimately purchased digital version was considered by many to be outrageous and unfair.
“Overwhelmingly respondents seemed unconcerned about the possibility of prosecution should they be caught, in fact the mood was quite apathetic, with many believing the scope of their offences simply too small to worry about.”
As with previous research efforts, the consensus was that a majority would be willing to pay for “more affordable” content, including via subscription-based services.
