File-Sharing Kids: “I really don’t care, it’s not my problem. Singers and actors are rich enough”
Written by enigmax on August 13, 2007According to a study into children’s safety and how they use the internet, European kids appear to have a basic grasp of the law when it comes to file-sharing. However, they aren’t really bothered by it and just carry on downloading - music in particular.
The ‘Eurobarometer’ study covers many aspects of electronic communication used by kids between the ages of 9 and 14 but of course, we’re interested in the internet section and in particular, file-sharing.
When asked how they ‘learned’ how to use the internet, many of the children said they couldn’t remember - an indication of how early in a child’s life computers are introduced these days and summed up nicely by a 9-10 year old boys group from the Netherlands: “There is nothing to learn” and from a group of German boys: “It is in my blood. I am a computer freak.”
Most say that they were shown the basics but went on to teach themselves and other people, including their parents: “My parents do not teach me, I teach them!” (Boys group, 12-14 years, Ireland)
In respect of file-sharing, the 9-10 year old groups didn’t show much interest, the complete opposite of the 12-14 year olds, especially the boys who really enjoyed downloading new games.
It’s obvious from the samples given in the report that those kids questioned in the older groups had some grasp of the law relating to file-sharing. However, the bad news for those planning on enforcing copyright law on them when they become adults is that they don’t really care about it. Right across the European countries questioned, for the kids, awareness of the law didn’t really translate into a concern for operating within it.
Amongst the kids there was generally an attitude of “everyone is doing it, so i’ll do it too”. Add this to the fact that many kids watch their parents file-sharing: “Dad does it all the time” (Girls group, 12-14 years old from Norway), there’s a real challenge for the media companies in trying to get these kids to stop or change habits in the future.
A group of 9-10 year old Belgian girls share the opinions of millions of file-sharers world-wide when they said: “But I do not understand that it is illegal”.
The older boys group (12-14 years) from Denmark said: “It’s illegal, but it does not look like it is illegal” while the girls from the same age group in Belgium proclaimed: “It is wrong but not our fault”.
Almost nailing current perception of European copyright law, the 12-14 year old boys group in Finland claimed “Downloading is illegal, it is not punishable whereas sharing the files is punishable”. It’s generally felt that downloading is not an offense in Europe, where uploading probably is.
The French boys get it totally right when they said: “People download, but if is just for themselves, it is less serious than downloading for burning and reselling”. Indeed, selling copyright material is generally a criminal offense whereas file-sharing is nearly always a civil issue in Europe.
The older boys from the UK could be forgiven for coming to the conclusion they came to: “I don’t really feel guilty. It wouldn’t be on the Internet if it was like really illegal, they wouldn’t have it there”.
The older Czech boys felt that paying for stuff wasn’t necessary: “They have a lot of money ! They don’t need my money”, an opinion shared by the Italians: “I really don’t care, it’s not my problem. Singers and actors are rich enough”.
Having paid their ISP for their internet connection, the 12-14 year old boys from Portugal feel they have done their part: “We pay because we are spending megabits!”
Most of the children when questioned said they intend to carry on downloading and nothing is likely to stop them, however something that continually crops up in the internet part of the report is the concern the children have for downloading a virus. Indeed this is their major concern, although a 9-10 year old boys group from Slovakia had a solution:
“… Just download anti-virus software.”
The report can be downloaded here.
Thanks to Chris Pirillo for the great artwork
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93 Responses
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Jai, again with your “I hate liberals, I can’t continue my argument without saying the word liberal!” Please, use a valid argument that does not center around “everyone is a liberal”. Liberal is merely a word used to describe a group of people, not every liberal follows the specific 9999 codes of the liberals and the same goes for the conservatives, etc. In some way or another everyone is a liberal, so please rethink about every comment you made involving the word liberal.
We are criminals because the law says we are. But what purpose has the laws then? Filesharing is becoming more and more socially acceptable. In my opinion it is the laws which are out-of-date and obsolete. Filesharing is a social change which some try to resist but in the end they might have to accept that it in the future may not bee possible to sell a sequence of one’s and zero’s.
And it’s not just kids who doesn’t care about copyright-laws. I know several people above 40 who downloads. And sometimes people who aren’t used to filesharing asks me for help to getting started.
Here in sweden the parties has finally realized that a great deal of their votes comes from “pirates” thanks to the forming of the pirate party which i will probably vote for in the next election. However the other parties are a little more positive to filesharing they are still a bit far from reasonable. But at least it’s a change for the better.
http://www.stealthisfilm.com/
a movie about filesharing and how the US government used threats of economic sanctions to override swedish national law to force the raid of the pirate bay. And yeah i know the website is crappy but at least its functunal.
Sharing is caring!
Is file sharing illegal? Yes
Do I care? Yes
Will I keep doing it? Yes
Will I get caught? Hopefully not.
And lets not get into politics people there are plenty of places to post on that.
Is file sharing illegal? yes
Do I care? Yes
Will I keep doing it? Yes
Will I get caught? Hopefully not.
OMG I just said the same thing as the last guy, so many ppl think alike these days.
Guys lets think about it, how many % of the internet does file sharing occupy? I don’t know but I sure as hell can guess that its pretty damn high, if there were no file sharing, let us imagine the impact on the world.
The underlying problem here is that the kids do not care that they are breaking the law. Yes, it may be a dumb law or you may not like it, but it still is the law. If you want it changed, you need to go through proper channels, not just go and break the law. I don’t like buying packages of 12 hot dogs and packages of 8 hot dog buns, but I do, because that’s the way they are packaged. If it really bugs me and I can’t stand it, I need to go through the channels to ask the makers of those products to change. I can’t just go and rip out 12 buns and ask them to charge me less for the buns! If I don’t like going 55 miles per hour on a certain stretch of highway, I can either go faster and risk getting caught, or go and try to get the limit raised.
Sharing music has always been a problem but it’s never been as easy to share as it is now. You used to have to share the analog way (tape) which resulted in degraded copies (mix tapes traded around). This was not quick and not perfect copies. Now, with digital, you can make perfect copies and share them instantly. That’s where the true problem lies. The companies have known for years about sharing, but the analog way was not a huge problem so they sort of let it go. I can understand the problem they have now. Pandora is out of the box and there is NO way they’re going to get it back in now!
These kids are not being taught right from wrong by their parents. As much as you want to blame the kids, it’s the parents’ fault. They need to learn about computers if they are going to parent a child who uses one. They NEED to understand what’s going on. Yes, this is a simple case of file sharing, but what about in the future when they grow up? What’s to stop them from stealing a soda from a store, money from a bank, life from another human? Yeah, that’s extreme, but what is to stop them from saying, I’m thirsty, I’m poor, that guy annoys me and then going and doing those things? They already have the attitude that it’s “Not their problem”. They are already blaming others for their own actions. This will only continue onto bigger things as they grow.
Kids do not truly understand the shades of grey in these matters. They only truly understand right and wrong. File sharing is a grey area. For kids though, they should be taught simply, it is against the law, so you don’t do it. When they are older, they can think about things and look at the problems that DRM causes and why people do turn to file sharing, such as Google’s recent decision to get out of the business and not allow you to play their drm files anymore despite the fact you paid for them. Is that right? Should those people be denied the product they paid for? No of course not! So go ahead and redownload it off of a torrent site or filesharing app. These people tried to do the right thing and got screwed! Does FOX allow me to watch missed episodes of Hell’s Kitchen? Nope, just clips! SO hell with that, I’m going to download it. I’m not waiting for them to put out a DVD! ABC plays the last few episodes of their shows, as does NBC, so if I miss an episode, I go to their site and watch it their, even with an ad or two. With a legal alternative, I will choose that method. However, mess around with that legal method, and yes, I’ll turn to filesharing.
You understand this, and kids may say, yeah I get that, but they really don’t. They are not adults yet, despite the fact they grow up quicker today than ever before. Black and white is what they truly understand. For these kids in the story, they are basically saying “Yes, this is wrong but I don’t care. Everyone else does it, so I will too.” Well, as my parents used to say, if everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it too? I always said no, of course not.
Maybe today’s children haven’t been told that. Maybe they think, yeah, I would jump of a bridge, why not?
very interesting thanks.
http://www.217magazine.com
[quote] You’re all criminals, that’s the bottom line.
An artist has the right to protect his or her creation.
Stop trying to take away that freedom.
[/quote]
Back already? :P
Controlling what someone else does with something you made is not freedom.
Controlling what someone else does is the exact opposite of freedom.
Downloading music and movies is from the internet is TERRIBLE! And by terrible I mean its hard finding the music you want, downloading it via a reliable high speed connection, and having it organized and easy to use for everyday use, parties, in any room of the house, playing on my stereo, in my car, on my television, on my computer, and to take with you to work, or on the bus, or in the car. If you want me to pay for internet music, fix those problems. OH WAIT Apple has already gotten started. They let me play my music in two places, and they help me organize it and download it quickly. They still restrict what I can do with it, but sort of in a way I can live with for now. Yeah, sure I’ll pay 99c for that.
We here in Portugal pay for our use of the internet, trust me it isnt cheap… As some of the kids stated… thoughs fuckers are rich enough what the hell do they need our money for? So Jay-Z can have the money to sell 10 kilo’s more of some fine fish scale or so Eminem “Marshal Mather’s” can continue poping his colorfull pills? or so DMX can buy more bullets to kill people that annoy him and write more songs??
I know most of what I just stated may or may not be true but the point of it is that they are surely going to get payed either way.
I say keep the US laws in the US and lets get these anti-p2p groups out of this side of the world.
Anyone want to join in with a revolt?
I’d pay cd prices if I got as much online storage as I wanted and I could stream the music from the internet reliably via satellite to my car and any internet enabled device in my home, AND I got to download it as many times as I wanted in whatever format I wanted with no restrictions. HECK yeah I’d pay cd prices.
I have a deal with the RIAA. They don’t put restrictions on how, when, and where I listen to my music and movies, and I won’t crush their homes, dreams, and families under a slowly advancing glacier called peer-to-peer file sharing.
oh, and if they don’t have a song I’m looking for they have 3 weeks to make it available to me, or they refund my subscription price for the month.
the point is NO ONE COMPANY can set up a system like this. If anyone could it would be a cooperative effort put forth by the entire music industry, but they already dropped the ball. Music is changing. Its too late for them to play catch up now. The efforts of millions of individuals outstripped them, outpaced them, and they did it all just to help other people get the music they wanted.
aren’t we supposed to be teaching our kids to share? hahahaha
I feel bad for artists, I really do, because its not their fault. They hired a large and largely successful group of people to promote them, care for their interests, and make their music available to as wide an audience as possible. The people who run the music industry are to blame, and if they decide to take their mistakes out of the pockets of artists, then once again, they are to blame. Lets lay blame where blame is due: squarely on the shoulders of frightened, ininspired, no-risk, no-reward music executives.
kids should respect the law? are you kidding me?!? if theres any time you should do rampant law breaking, it’s when you’re a kid and the consequences will be very little.
it’s good that these kids can see through the propagenda and realize that data is in no way property. the cost of content is dropping to zero, and this is the future!
Data is not property? The “data” as you say, is a song (or album). A song that was written by someone, recorded, and then put up somewhere for others to purchase and listen to. It most certainly is property. And, it is copyrighted property. It matters not if it is data or a hard copy. Copyrighted material is copyrighted material. It is protected by law that others cannot use it for monetary gain until a certain number of years is up. I mean, that’s very basic of course.
Anyway, this is NOT the future. Content will never be totally free. Sure, an artist may start out by wanting to have his music heard, his message gvien to the people, but eventually that artist is going to need to eat. That’s where selling will come in. Unless he is independently wealthy, he’’s not going to give all of his stuff away for free always. So, how is it you think content will be free in the future?
[quote comment="146447"]The underlying problem here is that the kids do not care that they are breaking the law. Yes, it may be a dumb law or you may not like it, but it still is the law. If you want it changed, you need to go through proper channels, not just go and break the law. [/quote]
Laws at a fundamental level are there to protect people and facilitate civilisation, thus when they are no longer relevant, they are ignored.
The fact is that the internet and p2p technology are changing the way which people interact with information. Society changes first, the law will follow later.
Don’t worry too much about artists, they managed to make great music long before megacorps tooks over their interests, they will be fine in the p2p age.
[quote comment="146447"]Yes, it may be a dumb law or you may not like it, but it still is the law. If you want it changed, you need to go through proper channels, not just go and break the law.[/quote]
There aren’t any “proper” methods of influencing legislation that don’t involve breaking the law or exploiting them through informal fallacy.
Do you really want our children to go through politics the “normal” way? It would be a tragedy to breed more lobbyists.
Yeah but here’s the thing… the kids and filesharers think the law is irrelavant. The people making the music don’t. Sure, some are fine with the file sharing. They make their money more from the concerts anyway, right? But still, if an artist says explicitly they do not like people file sharing their music, do you still file share it?
I have no love for the big music companies and indeed I think the future is not with them. However, artists will still want to be compensated for their work somehow. Does an artist lose money when a file is shared? No, the music companies do. Well, what if an artist is putting the songs up for sale by himself without the help of a music company? Then HE or SHE loses the money because of file sharing.
Say I make a song and sell it on itunes for 99 cents. Someone buys it, I make whatever percentage and itunes takes their cut. No record company at all. Great! Now, someone takes that file and shares it to a couple thousand people. Now I, myself, am OUT that money that they would have spent on it! I wouldn’t see the file sharing law as irrelevant. Indeed, it is important to me making a living at that point.
There aren’t any “proper” methods of influencing legislation that don’t involve breaking the law or exploiting them through informal fallacy.
Do you really want our children to go through politics the “normal” way? It would be a tragedy to breed more lobbyists.[/quote]
So you advocate breaking the law? I hardly think that will change things. Maybe eventually it might convince people to take a look at things, but if you are caught, your immediate future might be unpleasant having to deal with the ramifications to that law breaking. As long as it is law, you will have to face the consequences, regardless of whether you agree with the law or not.
Oops, shouldve been a quote box in the above post around the first paragraph! Sorry, I was responding to Grendel’s statement there.
[quote comment="146550"]
So you advocate breaking the law? I hardly think that will change things. [/quote] breaking the law can and does change things, a classic example being civil disobedience during the American civil rights movement last century.
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