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Record companies like to portray pirates as scum of the earth: bottom-feeders, who stay holed up in their basements with their fibre-optic lines doing nothing but cavorting on torrent forums whilst listening to that latest boot-legged Justin Bieber album. A new report from Ofcom, though, seems to say that this impression may not be entirely true.
The survey, which polled 4400 internet users aged 12+, had some surprising, and some less-surprising results. Starting with the “I-could’ve-told-you-that” category, roughly 1-in-6 (or 16% to be precise) of respondents said that they had illegally downloaded at least one piece of content. But, more surprisingly, only a quarter of this group — or a miniscule 4% of the UK population — exclusively use pirated content. That means that three quarters of the “pirates” that the record labels are so eager to punish are actually legitimate, fee-paying customers. Moreover, these “hybrid” pirates (who torrent some content and pay for other) typically spend (both overall and per item) far more than their legal friends. In simple terms, the most involved, active, high-spending users of content are the pirates.
What I reckon, then, is that this xckd comic got it spot-on: most people who pirate things are just really active fans for whom pirating content is just the most convenient way to get it — about half of the “pirates” in the survey said that they mainly used torrents to get at stuff because it was quick and easy (or easier that wrestling with iTunes, at least). So, maybe rather than seizing the laptops of 9-year-old girls, the record companies should focus more on making legal content easier to buy and get? [Ofcom via TorrentFreak]7
Image credit: Man hugging laptop from Shutterstock
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Most surpised it is only one in six!
Also…
Where the hell do you keep getting these stock images from?!
“Image credit: Man hugging laptop from Shutterstock”
This has been known for many years. and for you info, “hybrid” pirates = internet users.
“…roughly 1-in-6 (or 16% to be precise) of respondents said that they had illegally downloaded at least one piece of content.”
All that tells me is 4-in-6 have no qualms about barefaced lying. For a better figure maybe don’t ask someone if they have downloaded a piece of content, ask them if they have used pirated content, yet I imagine 5-in-6 don’t know what is pirated content – like a friend ripping a CD for them, it’s OK they paid for it, or holding a copy of a recorded TV show for longer than 28 days.
I hug my iPad like that sometimes.
sometimes i imagine mine hugging m back.
My point exactly.
Piracy is merely a convenient content delivery system, which happens to be free. It is plural and unreliable. Make a content delivery system, that makes it immensely easy to consume large amounts of content and is perfectly reliable, and watch people shell out without any inhibitions. I would pay for ease of use, because all I want is the music/film at the end of the rope.
And artists should realize that their music/films are worth nothing more than pennies these days, so they should stop bullying record companies and record companies, the people.
I used to pirate music quite a lot ( I also bought a lot of CD’s and Cassettes back into day) then iTunes started releasing DRM Free audio files and my piracy went down a lot. Then spotify was released and now I have a paid membership to that and don’t pirate music at all.
Are Ofcom finally starting to open their eyes and see reality, wow. First I read the new notes from the frontline, now this, today is truly a great day.
Listen Mills, the record companies are right, and you’re wrong. The sooner you come round to their way of thinking, the better it will be for everyone.
Got it?
Oh, wait hang on, I got that wrong, their method is shit and it all needs to change.
I like this logic – I buy a lot of clothes, therefore it’s fine to nick the occasional pair of socks from Tesco; after all it’s far more convenient than having to queue up at the checkout.
/facepalm/
Except that pair of socks would cost £20, you’d need to sign up a Tesco account before you could purchase and you could only wear them with a certain pair of jeans or else risk being fined £1000.
Not advocating stealing by the way
. Just saying, that’s not the best comparison.
its a scrappy analogy I know, but convenience should never be an excuse for breaking the law
(lets try and not get into the debate of the legitimately of IP laws vs physical property – life’s too short!)
Fair enough, but I’d argue that the machinations of the record and film industries are more than just inconvenient, they can actually reduce the value of the product to the point that the customer can’t actually purchase the product that they want. What is available is often overpriced or restricted in some fashion.
I’m just a believer that most reasonable people would pay good money for a product if they were getting what they wanted. Convenience is just the icing on the cake.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones
rightly or wrongly i pirate a lot of music.
i have no moral qualms about this whatsoever and never will have.
jamacain dancehall is my music of choice, although i have quite eclectic taste, and do buy CDs of my favourite artists (in average about 6 a year
you only have to look at most artists to see how piracy is affecting them,
i mean some of them only own two mansions, poor unfortunate souls.
People have confessed that they’ve turned to pirating in some cases where Netflix and other content providers didn’t have what they we’re looking for.
For instance TV series are not uploaded (some aren’t even available after the DVD release).
This sounds spot on, I’ve downloaded a lot of ‘illegitimate’ content, but I also spend more money on consumable media than pretty much anyone else I know. It’s about convenience and value. Give us both and we’ll open our wallets…
What i don’t understand is that when you ‘buy’ a track online, you don’t own the product. I am surprised that ofcom hasn’t mentioned that piracy followed by the killing of the second hand market.
You never see Steven King protesting libraries. A lot of people I know (including myself) who use libraries also buy a lot of books. So, if I copy something am I stealing it? No, nothing has been lost. Is the record company losing money from my non-purchase (this is the one they always highlight to make the impressive numbers)? No, I probably wouldn’t want it if I had to pay so they wouldn’t have gotten my money in the first place. A downloaded MP3 does not = Lost revenue.
The main problem is the industry has not kept up with consumer demand; Itunes started the ball rolling but had draconian DRM from the start. Users of most commercial download services are treated like criminals from the outset and threatened/forced to comply with limitations on their purchase that are not only unreasonable but designed to trap the consumer into a corporate “ecosystem” that does not allow for competition.
Is it any wonder then that such cynical contempt for their own customers has driven people into torrenting DRM free music onto the device of their choice.
Think on this: If there was a service like the pirate bay or Audiogalaxy that you payed a monthly fee for and then had all you could eat, wouldn’t you pay for it? Maybe the record industries would be taking a smaller slice of the pie but THE PIE WOULD BE BIGGER!
So why don’t we have a Industry wide service that provides all the DRM free music you could want for a fee? Greed. Greed and the mistaken assumption that you can litigate problems away and bully people into doing anything that suits you.
Is downloading copied MP3s Illegal? Yes, but the Devil has all the best tunes and they’re all in FLAC!
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