James Delahunty
25 Jan 2007 4:51
According to a report issued on Wednesday, the majority of Americans don't regard illegal movie downloading and sharing as a serious offense. The Digital Life America survey from Toronto-based Solutions Research Group polled 2,600 Americans between June and late September, and found that about 40% believed that illegal movie downloading was a "very serious offense".
Compare that 40%, to the 79% who believed that stealing a retail DVD from a video store is a very serious offense. A majority 59% considered "parking in a fire lane" a more serious offense than movie downloading. "There is a Robin Hood effect. Most people perceive celebrities and studios to be rich already and as a result don't think of movie downloading as a big deal," said Kaan Yigit, study director at Solutions Research Group.
Yigit warned that in order to challenge Internet piracy, online download-to-burn services and new companies entering the market will need to be more flexible in first-run and catalog content offerings and pricing. "Otherwise file-sharing will continue to thrive," he said.
Source:
Reuters