Copyright Is Corporate Theft: People Who Illegally Download Buy Music Too
EVERYONE outside of the music industry knows that people who illegally download also buy music. For example, Person A buys a lot of vinyl, but also illegally downloads a load of stuff he wouldn’t normally buy, like that song they hear on the radio now and then.
Some people will ravage a torrent and then go buy various albums from it in a try-before-you-buy way. Others will solely nick music, but whaddayagonnado? Those people, years ago, would’ve only ever recorded friends albums onto blank tapes anyway.
A new report goes one further – music and movie pirates behave completely differently. Turns out those who illegally download films are far more likely to pay for legitimate copies as well.
The results come from a survey with researchers from Portsmouth Business School analysing the results.
They also found that film pirates were more likely to be male than music pirates and also more likely to stop illegally downloading movies if they thought it was harming the film industry.
How about that?
Dr Joe Cox, an economist at the University of Portsmouth, said: “These findings are important from a policy perspective, because they suggest campaigns that emphasise the harmful effects on the movie industry of piracy are much more likely to be effective than similar campaigns focusing on the music industry.”
“One of the reasons movie pirates are a different breed is downloading and file-sharing films is much more technologically demanding,” Dr Cox added.
“It requires faster internet speeds, greater digital storage capabilities and access to a wider range of devices for playback than pirating music, which has now become relatively simple, fast and cheap.”
The research showed that the main motivation for pirating films and music was to save money, with access to material not on general release also a big reason.
Seems that one major lesson being missed by some of the bigger entertainment businesses is that, if you throttle the supply and then overcharge for it, people are going to circumnavigate your hurdles and get it for free, instead of waiting for someone else to pull their finger out of their arses.
Posted: 7th, May 2014 | In: Music, The Consumer Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
