IP Outreach Research > IP Crime
Reference
| Title: | Doesn't Everybody Do It? Internet Piracy Attitudes and Behaviors |
| Author: | [NFO WorldGroup] |
| Source: | Software & Information Industry Association |
| Year: | 2001 |
Details
| Subject/Type: | Piracy |
| Focus: | Software |
| Country/Territory: | United States of America |
| Objective: | To explore the attitudes of Internet users toward copyrighted material (software, Internet content), both in the workplace and at home. |
| Sample: | 1.012 home users and 1.004 business users |
| Methodology: | Online survey |
Main Findings
The study establishes four categories of software and Internet content users: first, “regulators” (38% of business and 35% of consumer users respectively) are in favour of stricter copyright laws and would not knowingly or willingly violate copyright laws; with an increase in age, income or education level, there is an increase in the percentage of regulators.
Second, “obedient under protest” users (30% of business and 21% of consumer users respectively) are generally respectful of the rights of property, but think that everyone violates copyrights, that copyright law should not apply to Internet-related content or software. However, they would not like information they provide to be shared.
Third, “confused/self-justified pirates” (18% of business and 21% of consumer users respectively) believe in copyright laws, but justify the copyright infringements they commit using reasons such as “everyone does it” or “no one gets hurt”; they contend that they can do what they wish with content they own or purchased.
Fourth, “anarchists” (13% of business and 22% of consumer users respectively) are the true pirates – to them, copying or sharing either software or copyrighted information from the Internet is perfectly reasonable.
Overall, 29% of business and 31% of consumer users reported downloads of pirated software. 21% of business users admitted to having downloaded unauthorised digital content from information services. Less than 10% of consumers and less than 16% of business users indicated that they had redistributed software. Of those who have redistributed software, a majority has done so multiple times, typically between 2 and 4 times. The most often used redistribution channels were copying/downloading to disk/CD or e-mail. 54% of business users did not know whether their company permitted redistribution of content. 30% of business and 34% of consumer users downloaded free software on the Internet, and 89% and 90% of business and consumer users accessed free digital content. Male and business respondents were most likely to access free content on a daily basis.
[Date Added: Jan 20, 2009 ]