Here’s another article, this time from the UK, which shows that if people had an easy-to-use legal alternative, they’d happily pay for most content.
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.
Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and his fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians (w/ Jennifer Koerber) was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs The Collector’s Guide to Dean Koontz Web site, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
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2 Replies to “Piracy is Caused by Poor Choice”
Also, sometimes the choice is simply not there. A lot of foreign shows are never even released in the US. 😛
I stumbled across this torrentfreak link, too, but I have a different take on it. I’m thinking of blogging about it myself in detail, but briefly:
The original survey in question prompted respondants to indicate how much they agreed with statements like “sometimes the choice is simply not there” or “the illegal alternatives are more convenient, because they can get what they want much faster.” Agreeing with those statements doesn’t make them true.
Faster? Having tried multiple routes before myself, I haven’t found this to be true. More choice? Sometimes, but not consistantly. There’s another recent study from another London-based group–see the Digital Music Report 2008 from ifpi.org. A quote from the summary of that report: “Research by IFPI debunks a myth about illegal P2P services: in fact, fans get better choice on legal sites. IFPI conducted research with a sample of 70 acts on the legal site iTunes and on the copyright infringing service Limewire. In 95 per cent of searches the artists requested had more songs available on iTunes than on the leading P2P service.”
Back to the original study referenced in the torrentfreak article, drm issues don’t seem to be a major player in the choices these people make toward illegal downloading. If you’ll check the section starting on page 219, note that the majority of respondants in that study don’t even know what drm is, and on page 220, half of those who are familiar with it aren’t anti-drm.
Also, sometimes the choice is simply not there. A lot of foreign shows are never even released in the US. 😛
I stumbled across this torrentfreak link, too, but I have a different take on it. I’m thinking of blogging about it myself in detail, but briefly:
The original survey in question prompted respondants to indicate how much they agreed with statements like “sometimes the choice is simply not there” or “the illegal alternatives are more convenient, because they can get what they want much faster.” Agreeing with those statements doesn’t make them true.
Faster? Having tried multiple routes before myself, I haven’t found this to be true. More choice? Sometimes, but not consistantly. There’s another recent study from another London-based group–see the Digital Music Report 2008 from ifpi.org. A quote from the summary of that report: “Research by IFPI debunks a myth about illegal P2P services: in fact, fans get better choice on legal sites. IFPI conducted research with a sample of 70 acts on the legal site iTunes and on the copyright infringing service Limewire. In 95 per cent of searches the artists requested had more songs available on iTunes than on the leading P2P service.”
Back to the original study referenced in the torrentfreak article, drm issues don’t seem to be a major player in the choices these people make toward illegal downloading. If you’ll check the section starting on page 219, note that the majority of respondants in that study don’t even know what drm is, and on page 220, half of those who are familiar with it aren’t anti-drm.