Dutch Youth Addicted to BitTorrent
Written by Ernesto on May 21, 2009A recent survey conducted by a Dutch current affairs TV program looked into the downloading habits of the local youngsters – with some noteworthy results. While the legalization of marijuana in The Netherlands results in less usage compared to neighboring countries, the liberal download climate has quite the opposite outcome.
Two weeks from now, Mininova will be in court facing the local anti-piracy watchdog BREIN. In a report dedicated to the upcoming trial, the TV program EénVandaag asked 3500 Dutch youngsters aged between 12 and 24 years old about their download behaviors.
The results were presented earlier this week and they were quite remarkable. A massive 93% of the surveyed respondents said they download music, movies or games from the Internet, while only 5% of this group of downloaders actually uses a paid service like iTunes.
Downloading copyrighted music or movies for personal use is not prohibited in The Netherlands, but uploading is. In most cases this means that using BitTorrent to download copyrighted music is not the best choice, since it generally requires uploading. However, this is not holding any of the Dutch youngsters back, so it seems.
BitTorrent was by far the preferred file-sharing (download) application according to the survey. More than 45% of the downloaders said they use sites like Mininova and The Pirate Bay to download the latest music and movies. Usenet came in second with a respectable 15%.
Aside from looking into their download behavior, respondents were also asked to predict the outcome of the Mininova trial. Only 15% thought that BREIN will come out the winner, while 45% thought Mininova would strike up a victory. The remaining 39% knew too little about the case to make a useful assessment.
There are of course many flaws in this type of survey. First off, respondents were recruited through online forums and even highly tech oriented communities such as Tweakers. Among these tech savvy and active Internet users the percentage of P2P-users is undoubtedly higher than average. Secondly, the survey was promoted as a “download” survey, this will of course attract the attention of those who actually download more than those who don’t.
Polls and surveys can be very misleading, especially when they are ill constructed. What we can conclude from the Dutch survey, although carefully, is that The Netherlands has quite a few active BitTorrent users and that they are confident that Mininova will beat BREIN in court. Let’s hope that a similar survey among lawyers would reach a similar conclusion.
Previously: ‘Spanish Napster’ Sued For Unfair Competition
Next: German Pirate Party Sets Course For European Parliament
37 Responses
lekkerrrrrrrr
We are all the pirate bay!
I’ve seen the poll questions and they were horribly biased. The discussion that followed the poll post on the tweakers.net forum (in Dutch) was intense because of the crappy questions.
We are the children..
Of the revolution…
Pirate Bay rulez!
Yeahhhhhhh………
When an entire generation does something new and there is an establishment that opposes the new way of thinking … what do you call that new way of doing things then?
I would say evolutionary improvement.
They would say “crime”.
They better hope the judge isn’t biased.
The study sounds biased indeed.
@8 Yet you know s/he will be.
Indeed the study sounds biased.
http://torrentino.net
I guess I’m part of that 5%,
I’m using a paid service: Rapidshare :P
scrumptious
has anyone got an OiNK invite spare?
pathetic effort of a survey
lol. OiNK doesn’t exist anymore :P
To be hounest – there’s only one thing worst that bad statistics, and that’s people using bad statistics.
15% use Usenet eh? More like one in 6 knew it was a bit more hardcore than torrenting and said they did it when they clearly don’t.
IMHO – disregard everything after ‘TV Program’.
Maybe the it was a crappy survey but everyone that I know download. Maybe not with Bittorrent but they do download!
yo thats crazy man.
‘has anyone got an OiNK invite spare?’
Errrrrrrm i dont think anyone will mate!
I was expecting a completely biased broadcast of this. But it’s actually pretty good (Except for the BREIN moron).
Both an artist and jurist (Is that good English?) look at the downloading, and both agree that the Entertainment industry is being stupid.
The jurist says that that because everybody downloads it’s not automatically legal. He then suggests that the industry finds a new way to make money, comparing it to if everybody would drive through a red light you’ll need to figure something else out that will keep crossings save.
The artist also believes that the internet helps a lot of artists become known. And since his generation grew up with the internet they already know it’s better to give some good live concerts, try to sell your CDs there and make money that way.
As a pride dutchman I’m proud and I torrent my ass off to be honest
Yes but this generation, as soon as they can vote, will support legalization of non profit sharing, and this means supporting the Pirate Party or parties with the same goals.
It is enough of American corporations to dictate the world what is crime and what is not. They are minority, and label everyone else criminals. I say, THEY are criminals.
So please be serious and vote Pirate Party, we have the numbers and just need to stay focused in the common goal.
Sharers of the world unite!
why every one downloads movies and games from torrent. u should go for rapidshare or try some sites http://i00.co.uk/49
where u get free stuff with no problem
thats bullcr@p, im dutch and between 12 and 24 years old, they also asked me to anwser some questions (i believe for the same purpose). All they asked were: how often do you visit sites like Mininova and TPB. Well daily, though i maybe download a movie every 2 weeks…
I think the people will end up winning this, even though it may take more than a decade. The MAFIAA mainly relies on lobbying, a pile of cash to spend on legal matters, and apathy among the general public. However, the number of people who support copyright reform is growing steadily and in the younger generations even amounts to the majority.
This will make it more difficult to keep ‘buying’ support from politicians – with some ministers and MPs in the Nordic countries going so far as to support P2P users.
The only remaining problem is the pile of cash their lawyers sit on. If only their whining about losing revenue due to piracy was legitimate, that problem would solve itselve as well…
????????????. ?????! ? ??????!
Who needs the MAFIAA I just found a band that I like in Jamendo
http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/149091
Houdini Roadshow – Snake Pit (I like the song didn’t pay attention to the lyrics though)
Who did say there is no options?
And found some free music that I can use on some mashups LoL
http://www.dejunair.com/
Want to hurt these people let start talking about options and going to them this way you not only are not financing the MAFIAA but you are also shrinking their appeal as a business model
Sooooooo…. What does _addiction_ have to do with all this? I doubt you are going to find a person who starts shaking if he isn’t downloading something (anything) via BitTorent…
almost everyone i know download on the regular.. and i’m living i Denmark, where the laws are more strict!
Besides the people in their 50’s and above I don’t know anyone who doesn’t download something.
rapid share is a joke btw…lamers
private torrents are so much better….
but god i love dutch laws :)
hate that you can’t upload though
Basically according to that questionaire EVERYTHING you download is illegal…
Funny thing is …its LEGAL to download movies and music in the Netherlands.
They also didnt ask why someone would download illegally.
Another survey revealed that “illegal” downloaders are part of the highest % of paying customers on the internet
anyone ever think the problem might not be the lure of free whenever you wanna watch it.. tv shows but..
the fact that there’s virtually nothing good on tv in the netherlands?
and the stuff that is good is like 3 seasons behind.
@34
I agree with your about that are nothing good on tv in the netherlands.
@34,35
I agree as well.
Put some better stuff on tv and for crying out loud play the seasons in the right order.
Way to be inflammatory, TF. Writing the Daily Mail’s headlines for them now, I see. Agree with 28 – “addicted to BitTorrent”? Really? What’s next, “Torrents Anonymous”?
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