Study: Piracy is Caused by Poor Choice
Written by Ben Jones on March 05, 2008According to a new study just released in the UK, one of the biggest causes of copyright infringement is a lack of choice. The study further shows that one third of the Brits have downloaded copyright infringing content, or plans to do so in the future.
This claim, published in the 2008 Digital Entertainment Survey (pdf), is only reiterating what has been said many times before – that trying to promote the artificial scarcity is what is fueling piracy.
In total, 70% of those who admitted to piracy agreed that “legal sites just don’t have the range of illegal ones” (try looking for Beatles tracks) whilst almost as many said they would pay for downloads, if what they wanted was available. This is probably also one of the main reasons why half of the BitTorrent downloads are TV-shows.
The fact that one third of the UK citizens can be labeled as a pirate is thus a signal that these customers want something that is not available through other channels. It’s more about availability than the fact that it’s free.
On top of the availability issue, 68% of the respondents who have downloaded copyrighted content indicate that the illegal alternatives are more convenient, because they can get what they want much faster.
In addition, the report shows that anti-piracy campaigns are not very effective. To the possible despair of industry bodies, however, 68% believed that that are very unlikely to be caught downloading, showing that slogans such as ‘You can click but you can’t hide‘ are understood as intimidation rather than a promise.
With a motion having being put forward, requesting the information being used to identify and prosecute filesharers, and judges getting annoyed with the methods used in these cases, the chances of being caught are steadily declining.
If there is anything the Entertainment Industry should take from this report, it’s that they should move with the times, and start releasing their back catalogs for sale, rather than let someone else do it for free.
Previously: NIN Confirms Uploads to Public and Private Torrent Sites
Next: IFPI Pressure Forces ISPs to Block Another File-Sharing Site
102 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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To be honest I believe why pay when you can get stuff for free? I maybe wrong on many levels, but i m a “normal” human being. Anyways i’ve had it with nonsensical marketing crap being shoved down. Very few shows and artists and movies are worth it.
[quote comment="304399"]People will choose the free way no matter how DRM-free music or tv-shows get. Piracy is for getting stuff free.[/quote]
Not entirely true. I have a friend, who describes himeself as a ‘media archiver’, stated to me recently that if there were no DRM or Anti-copy protection on music, movies, software, etc., it would be of little value to do it and he would stop. No DRM would take all the fun out of it.
Personally, I’d continue anyway. I have stopped using my VCR to record TV programs and simply D/L them after they air. That way I can burn them to a DVD-RW and watch them at my convenience or convert them to a suitable format and watch them on the device of MY choice. So what’s their loss? Hmm, ZERO! What’s my gain? EVERYTHING!
Ramming speed? Not fast enough.
Light speed? Still not fast enough.
LETS GO FOR LUDICROUS SPEED!
Plaid all the way!
PS. Bonus points if you understand the reference.
yeh trent reznor said this ages ago & woz right
I totally agree: Lots of piracy is caused by the poor selections offered at record shops and online stores.
We should also recognizes other reasons why people turn to piracy, such as:
-Pirated music is free.
-Legal music is too expensive.
-Most of the money you spend on legal music doesn’t reach the artist any how.
-Cds are dead
-Lots of people just hate record companies
I cant say for others but I can only speak for myself. I work at a retail entertainment store as Inventory manager. I do checkout alot of movies , shows, and music and as such have gone on to buying 90% of the movies I wathed and almost 95% of the music I check out. If it wasnt for TPB, mini, and other places I wouldnt have known of groups as fintroll, gernotshagen. I know what you pay at the store is so much more then retail price. I pay wholesale plus 5%. on average my dvd are around 8 –10 dollars max for new releases and less on CD’s 7 dollars and less for new cd’s. I am one of the lucky ones as I work in a place like that and have an excess amount of movies to make most rental stores jealous. If I was to have to pay for each and every song , album. or movie I would be hosed. Is it fair for me to own the music and get charged for downloading the same song just for sake of convience and time. No.. the RIAA and MPAA are group of ciminals in their selves. And as for retailors saying that they get hosed and are loosing money from piracy its a little known fact that the base retail market only make 2 cents profit per dollar amount of item sold.
Anyhow thankyou Hastings Entertainment for my 12 yrs service and my insane movie and music collection.
Any company claiming that they are loosing company to piracy is backwards, they are loosing money to the RIAA MPAA, and thats fact.
Please Digg this so it can reach a larger audience and perhaps attract the attention of the RIAA.
I read Torrenfreak all the time and I’m sure you all will hate me for this comment, but its true.
Please Digg it.
[quote comment="304427"]To be honest I believe why pay when you can get stuff for free? I maybe wrong on many levels, but i m a “normal” human being. Anyways i’ve had it with nonsensical marketing crap being shoved down. Very few shows and artists and movies are worth it.[/quote]
I’m with you one this as well. Why pay for something when we can get it for free?
Some people seem to think that humans were born to work. Wrong. Humans work to live. Advances in technology should make human life easier and more convenient, not be another way to make money for a fake system created by humans to feel important for work that they do.
I know I’m terrible with words, but at least I try to be honest and not confuse people like certain scum with jargon words.
Quite frankly, there is nothing morally wrong with downloading illegally. It’s only wrong in the eyes of a fake system created by humans. Besides, wasn’t America “created by the people for the people” or some bullshit like that? Well, guess what, the people want to be able to freely do as they please on the internet.
A country can fall if all its people are in jail or against it in some way because of select individuals too blind to realize that what they’re doing is wrong.
Personally i have the mentality that
1. “why buy when you can get it for free! Thats the pirates philosophy”
2. The quality, i am not gonna buy a dvd and ass rape my pc due to drm.
3.As far as software goes; as much as i love adobes products iam not dishing out over 1k to use it.
4. Like someone mentioned above, legitimate distributor’s of media need to be able to provide high quality non drm products before i go back to buying.
5. Besides there are better things government’s can put their money towards…. like education? just a thought
[quote comment="304568"][quote comment="304427"]To be honest I believe why pay when you can get stuff for free? I maybe wrong on many levels, but i m a “normal” human being. Anyways i’ve had it with nonsensical marketing crap being shoved down. Very few shows and artists and movies are worth it.[/quote]
I’m with you one this as well. Why pay for something when we can get it for free?
Some people seem to think that humans were born to work. Wrong. Humans work to live. Advances in technology should make human life easier and more convenient, not be another way to make money for a fake system created by humans to feel important for work that they do.
I know I’m terrible with words, but at least I try to be honest and not confuse people like certain scum with jargon words.
Quite frankly, there is nothing morally wrong with downloading illegally. It’s only wrong in the eyes of a fake system created by humans. Besides, wasn’t America “created by the people for the people” or some bullshit like that? Well, guess what, the people want to be able to freely do as they please on the internet.
A country can fall if all its people are in jail or against it in some way because of select individuals too blind to realize that what they’re doing is wrong.[/quote]
i completely agree.
and an edit to my above post
2. I’am not going to buy a dvd and when played in my pc have it get ass raped by the DRM.
(hehe didnt want anyone getting the wrong idea)
Feed the frenzy guys and make it all the more acceptable for all to steal, rather than pay for the content we all adore. Let’s just hand over fucking keys to the White House now to foreign interests. Intellectual property rights and the creative genius of our IT and entertainment industries is one of the US’s only remaining competitive advantages in the new economy. If the industry does not protect itself here, how can we stop the widespread copying/duplication of our property off-shore.
I believe that the entertainment industry has been too slow in making its content available and they keep protecting the old world by charging too much for it online but it is not fucking yours and they can choose to do with what is theirs as they wish. I have a 15 year old and do not let him steal content online - the same as he knows he can’t steal money off my dresser draw (after all that is easy to do and I won’t notice). Do the right thing you fucking criminals. It is not your content to steal.
get a reserved torrentleech account by following this guide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0AfdlCQidE if you have any questions please email me
just sign up and complete 1 offer and you will get either a torrentleech invite or a blackcats invite your choice
ok….as both a file sharer and a musician (although not in a large band, or making any money from it) i can appreciate both sides of the argument, i honestly believe that the true course should lie somewhere between the two polar opposites that are currently demanded by each side of the argument
from the musicains/labels point of view
- bieng in a band is expensive, the gear costs a hell of a lot, as does travel, maintinence, and living out on the road, not to mention the ludicrous prices charged by commercial quality studios, meaning that they simply cant afford to throw away revenue on illigal downloads (well mabye the big 4 can, but smaller labels, independant or otherwise run on far too small a margins for this to be practical)
- if artists arent earning a regualr income from sales of records then the likelyhood is that they wont be able to tour etc… as many people say they should, as it is a very expensive undertaking, as well as highly time consuming, meaning that they would not be able to work enough to keep food on there tables if they went on tour for say 6 months with no garantee of payment (for most artsits its either a small fixed fee or a percentage of door takings plus merch sales) so many people may decide to get a more stable job instead, leading to a drop off in the number of artists actively touring or recording material, and leading to an increased saturation of pop music, which generally comes with much more low-key, or shorter tours, which are a much smaller gamble for lables/promoters etc…
however, from my perspective as a file sharer
-music is percieved as expensive, although, when you consider the effort and skills taken to produce and average commercial grade album, and the enjoyment you get from listening to a quality song or album , i think in many cases the price is more or less justified. (although of course there are a lot of generic albums which are rushed off to a formula to make a quick buck)
-the lables take a large cut of any money you pay for an album….however, you should remember that it is the label that pays for things like studio time, duplication and promotion, none of which your average band would be able to afford to do for themselves
-drm sucks…admittedly, it is really annoying, however, labels have to try to curb people sharing like they did back in the casette tape days, and simply making copies all there friends, and then all the friends making copies for there friends etc…
in conclusion
artists and lables deserve payment for what is a large effort, and often a financial gamble on there part, and althouhg music is increasinly seen as a service instead of a product, it remains a product, which has a value attached,so it is unfair to simply take without giving back, so the middle ground must be sought, ie donations, ad-supported music and people buy merchandise, and in return the lables should relax DRM as much as its commercially safe to, and increasingly look to touring and live shows, even though they can be a risk, as they are the arena where all the largest acts of ‘pop’ in all its forms since the world wars have established themselves
flame away if you feel the need, but i tried to keep it neutral, which is the only sensible way to look at the issue
[quote comment="304586"]Feed the frenzy guys and make it all the more acceptable for all to steal, rather than pay for the content we all adore. Let’s just hand over fucking keys to the White House now to foreign interests. Intellectual property rights and the creative genius of our IT and entertainment industries is one of the US’s only remaining competitive advantages in the new economy. If the industry does not protect itself here, how can we stop the widespread copying/duplication of our property off-shore.
I believe that the entertainment industry has been too slow in making its content available and they keep protecting the old world by charging too much for it online but it is not fucking yours and they can choose to do with what is theirs as they wish. I have a 15 year old and do not let him steal content online - the same as he knows he can’t steal money off my dresser draw (after all that is easy to do and I won’t notice). Do the right thing you fucking criminals. It is not your content to steal.[/quote]
Not to flame, but considering how badly we as consumers are “robbed” by large cooperations with every purchase we make i think certain companies get what they deserve.
Now i don’t support pirating music, but i pirate movies. Why? because iam not paying 10 bucks to get a ticket, and then have to deal with assholes in the theater while i “try” to enjoy my film. Not only that but if you go alone which rarely happens when people go to movies, your lucky to walk out of there without spending 25 bucks. So i will just download it for free and watch it as many times as i want to without having to deal with possibly reinstalling my OS every time i want to watch a legally purchased dvd because of DRM.
But face it when you think of the average standard of living for Americans the RICH musicians are never hurt by the money they lose to pirating, granted they may be “grieved” into having to buy 12 cars instead of 27, and only 3 multi million dollar houses instead of 8.
Ask yourself this,if someone gave you the ability to make money without having to work for it. I am more than confident your first response would not be “No thanks, i would rather work for that money”
[quote comment="304264"][quote comment="304127"]Torrents offer:
- greatest selection of media known to man
- high quality
- DRM free
- ours forever
- we can do what we want with it
Legal downloads need to offer at least 4 of the above before they stand a chance[/quote]
4? LOL! They not only need to offer all of the above but even more. And frankly, after years of being harassed, hounded, and branded a criminal by the entertainment industry I don’t think I’m willing to just say “let bygones be bygones, all is forgiven” and start paying them, no matter what they do. I don’t feel I’m alone in this thinking either.
How many have had their lives disrupted and even destroyed by the anti-piracy forces. How many college students were forced to leave college (and their future plans) due to being sued into the poorhouse by RIAA goons? Grandmothers, students, working class parents, even a dead person has been targeted by these dirtbags and the scum of the legal profession that works in their cause.
Dan Glickman of the MPAA says that I and my fellow filesharers (100 million+ and growing) are the “lowest form of criminal” and the “scum of the earth” for pirating movies. Now because they’re teetering on the brink of collapse I’m supposed to just put all the bad feelings in the past and move on? AND actually give them money???
You know what? Fuck them and the horse they rode in on. The MPAA and RIAA were the ones who decided it was good business strategy to criminalize their customer base, buy and corrupt the political process to change laws that benefit the entertainment industry’s interests and not the people’s, and even relentlessly try to meddle and influence the internal affairs of other countries (as in the Pirate Bay case). All in the name of money.
Greedy, arrogant bastards. The hell with them. The future of entertainment distribution is developing just fine without their participation in building the platforms and business models of tomorrow. It won’t be too many more years before they are nothing but a bad memory. I do believe we will see it in our lifetime. And they have no one to blame but themselves.
They can hire all the Media Defenders and buy all the politicians they want. In the end, it will not save them.
I say hoist the sails mateys. Ramming speed![/quote]
agreed!
qft
to 37. Azlan
[quote comment="304608"]
from the musicains/labels point of view
- bieng in a band is expensive, the gear costs a hell of a lot, as does travel, maintinence, and living out on the road, not to mention the ludicrous prices charged by commercial quality studios, meaning that they simply cant afford to throw away revenue on illigal downloads (well mabye the big 4 can, but smaller labels, independant or otherwise run on far too small a margins for this to be practical)
[/quote]
first, isnt the gear a onetime investment. imean, ofc if u want to buy 235325325 guitars that costs alot but once u have bought one u got one, travling isnt that expensive, u take a buss etc. living on the road, ok acceptable.
does really illegal downloads fuck that up. you say “meaning that they simply cant afford to throw away revenue on illigal downloads ” its not like any artists have had to cancel their tour because of piracy?Lol. ofc its expensive to get makeup etc. but dont they get paid to do an concert??? dont they get paid for the cd’s that they sell to the people who like their music? if people like it they buy it, if not they probly wouldnt have bought it in the first place, you know.
meh sorry for typos in my thread above, and even if it is that expensive as u say, they still get paid for everything + extas.
[quote comment="304267"]Take the results with a pinch of salt.
They surveyed something like one person in every 40,000 of the population, and make some funny claims, like Apple TV outselling the iphone (1.2 million apple TVs based on their results vs apples lousy iphone performance in the UK, maybe 200,000 up to xmas).
SNIP
…
SNIP
I wont bother ripping into the rest of it, just don’t read too much into the 1600 people who took the survey, or place any kind of faith in their findings.[/quote]
1600 is a perfectly acceptable sample size and will give a very decent confidence interval. Please learn something about statistics before trying to “rip into it”.
What that long winded guy said
Over here ( in the UK ), another key reason that people download TV shows is that they run so much later over here. For example, 24 generally runs from September onwards in the US, it’s then released to Sky TV, an expensive satellite TV network that I don’t have any need to sign up to… a few months later it is finally released on DVD. The same applies to Prison Break, LOST, etc.
By the time the DVD has been released, i’ve spoken to American friends, and people who watched it on Sky, and half the plot has been spoiled. Alternatively, I could torrent it ( usually about an hour ) after each episode airs in the US and be ahead of the game.
If I could buy it in the UK, be it on DVD as it airs on TV, or through iTunes or similar, i’d gladly do so, but I can’t!
Blah blah blah I download shit because it’s free.
I pirate music because it’s free. I honestly wouldn’t buy it if I couldn’t, and nothing would change my mind. I can easily live without music. I enjoy films more so I always buy them, unless they are released elsewhere first. Being labelled a pirate is quite an honour, they should start by calling us something less cool.
- high quality
- DRM free
- ours forever
- easiness of use/ not complicated to transfer music from thng to another OR only able to use it on 5 home computer ./stare itunes
Just reiterating a post above
Can somebody please ban lily from this site for spamming.
Seriously lil, fuck off. Nobody cares about you and lanky friends, it’s not our fault they can’t get laid.
To all those that are complaining about the delay in US programming overseas, I just have to say this goes both ways!
I’m in the US and it sucks that we usually have to wait months (and sometimes years) for BBC programming: Top Gear, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Spooks.
If there was a affordable/timely/legal method of getting the shows above I would pay, but right now there isn’t! Torrents is the only way, unless you have overseas friends willing to record broadcasts for you (which is how I used to get my BBC shows) That method took TIME, money, and knowing someone overseas.
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