AfterDawn: News

New study shows European youth have no problems with piracy

European children understand the risks associated with illegal downloading, but justify what they're doing by saying that everyone is doing it according to a European Commision survey.

Almost all of the children surveyed in the 27 European Union member countries as well as in Norway and Iceland said they expect to continue downloading. They also said the risk of downloading a virus was far more dissuasive than the risk of legal proceedings.



The survey also showed that children are far more aware of risks like viruses and identity theft than their parents believe, and are generally aware of how to avoid them.

Regardless of whether you're in favor of such downloading or against, the reality is that it's happening. And assuming the results of this study are anywhere near accurate, it's going to continue to happen.

The real question is what kind of business model will continue to encourage creative works to be created and what sort of intellectual property laws are enforceable.

Complaining that people are "stealing" your works and coming up with more and more DRM simply isn't a realistic business model, but we have yet to find out for sure what may be viable. Until such a thing is established, expect to see more DRM that raises costs and lowers profits without putting a significant dent in either personal or commercial piracy.

Source: Reuters

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 13 Aug 2007 11:00

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• 20 comments

• budro

  music can be made available for free very easily. look at spiralfrog.com
  they're not going yet, but their concept is brilliant. i think others should follow suite and make free music readily, legally, available.

  13.8.2007 11:15 #1

• hughjars

  One thing is clear.
  
  Stop flogging a dead horse.
  
  It couldn't be simpler no matter how much 'the industry' (movie & music) really really really really wants it to be otherwise.

  13.8.2007 13:08 #2

• Mr-Movies

  I know lets make EVERYTHING FREE, ya right that should work well. Their business model should be "affordable" and you won't have to worry about excessive piracy. Yes, there will still be pirates out there but you'll sell more in the long run your profit will come from quantity of sales and NOT gouging people as the RIAA and music industry does so well now but it is back firing on them.

  13.8.2007 13:19 #3

• 21Q

  Maybe this events can make a world that isn't based on money on corruption. Unfortunately, that's only in perfect world.

  13.8.2007 13:50 #4

• Mr-Movies

  Even if you take money out of the equation you still have Power and power corrupts absolute!
  
  It is funny that kid's more then ever are downloading illegally so what have they solved here. Do we make more criminals or do we wake up and try another approach. Making more criminals seems to be what the governments like most.

  13.8.2007 14:05 #5

• duckNrun

  The actual quote about power is as follows:
  
  ”Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
  
  The history behind this quote (googled) is this:
  
  The statement goes back to April 5th 1881. In a letter written to Bishop Mandell Creighton, Lord Acton wrote those famous words. Lord Acton’s actual name was John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton. He was a famous English historian, Professor at Cambridge University and editor of the Cambridge Modern History
  
  just an fyi

  13.8.2007 17:42 #6

• Unfocused

  Anything that raises the cost will decrease sales. Plain and simple. Why can't they see this? Perceived dollars "to be earned" no matter how hard you want it to be will never be "actual dollars earned."

  13.8.2007 20:34 #7

• duckNrun

  In the case of physical goods there is a tangible loss to 'shrinkage' as defined by theft of actual items in stock.
  
  The industry would like to use this concept with digital media but the problem is even when piracy occurs with downloading there is no actual shrinkage occuring. When I purchase a digital item the amount of stock does not decrease. Therefore the same follows with piracy. There may be a presumed loss due to a sale not taking place but it is a far cry to compare someone stelaing apair of jeans to someone downloading or sharing music or movies online.
  
  While in both instances the loss occured due to the person not wanting, or willing, to buy the item. A lost sale DOES occur but in the digital world there is no loss of income from the lost sale.
  
  All that happens if piracy stops is sales may increae slightly due to those people who MAY be wiling or capable of buying the item deciding to do so since they can no longer obtain it through nefarious means but in reality I thnk that VAST majority of piracy would not result in any tangible increase in sales.
  
  However it all sounds good as a marketing line to politicians so as to enable more power to shift from the consumer and back to the industry. Google's revoking the purchases made by it's customers is perfect example of this, and a perfect risk of this.

  14.8.2007 02:52 #8

• MightyOne

  With the cost of living, taxes, low wages, high inflation there isn't going to be much money left for the this or the next generation to spend on these high priced music/movies/software items.
  
  Society has is rebelling. The digital world is upon us.
  You may not like it, but you gave it to us. If the "Powers that be were so smart", they should have seen this coming. Obviously they are not, hence the mass chaos, pointing fingers, copyright infringement lawsuits...etc...
  
  We are living in a world where its less of a punishment to rape someone than to download a digital file illegally. Pretty Pathetic !!!

  14.8.2007 06:15 #9

• jutsu

  theres a company that not serious in killing piracy, but its a big company
  
  its Nintendo
  
  look at their Gamboy -GBA, NDS game rom, can be very easy downloaded from internet
  
  and they still make a lot of profit,

  14.8.2007 07:42 #10

• emugamer

  Originally posted by jutsu: theres a company that not serious in killing piracy, but its a big company
  
  its Nintendo
  
  look at their Gamboy -GBA, NDS game rom, can be very easy downloaded from internet
  
  and they still make a lot of profit,I believe Nintendo was one of the supporters/initiaters of the recent console modder raids.

  14.8.2007 07:56 #11

• DVDdoug

  Quote:With the cost of living, taxes, low wages, high inflation there isn't going to be much money left for the this or the next generation to spend on these high priced music/movies/software items.
  You have got to be kidding! Look around at all the stuff the current generation has. Cell phones, video games, computers, their own TVs & DVD players in their bedrooms, etc. The previous generation had none of these luxuries, but now most middle class kids do.
  
  And, look at the cars! Everywhere you look there are BMWs. Acuras, Lexus, and Infinity. 25 years ago the Japanese luxury brands didn't even exist. Now, almost every "average" car sold has features that were only available on luxury cars in the past. When's the last time you were in a car without power windows?
  
  I remember when a 45 RPM vinyl single was about $1. Now, you can download a song for the same price! At that time, a vinyl album was about $5. If you could buy a vinyl album for $5 today, nobody would because the quality of a $15 CD makes the CD a better value.
  
  Everybody talks about "the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer". Nonsense! The middle class is getting richer and buying all of those upscale cars (and big TVs). Most rich people don't have their own servants anymore. They might rent a lemo, and they might have a "maid service" come in once a week to do the cleaning.
  
  I'm not saying everyone in America is well-off. (Personally, I can't afford all of that stuff.) But, most people are better-off economically than their parents were, and the trend continues.
  Be optimistic! The air is cleaner than it was a generation ago, and DRM is going away!

  14.8.2007 10:51 #12

• hughjars

  Originally posted by DVDdoug: But, most people are better-off economically than their parents were, and the trend continues. - Actually this is requires an enormously selective appraisal of the facts.
  
  The almost universal rise in the 2 earner family (essential for most in providing basic housing) alone indicates just how worse off (aside from and ignoring such trivialities such as the CD or iPod etc) many are these days.

  14.8.2007 14:48 #13

• vinny13

  I'm a 14 year old canadian and I don't care about piracy at all either. It's not like I'm murdering someone. If it's out there for free, why not get it, for free? I have better things to save my money for.
  
  They don't enforce these laws enough for me TO care.
  
  *Oh ya, if I really like something, I'll usually buy something. But just some things I have to get for free because I'm not gonna pay $300+ just to edit a photo for my PSP or something. I'm spending enough time and money learning how to use it. It also took 3 days to download, so I consider that enough punishment :P
  

  
  

  14.8.2007 15:24 #14

• DXR88

  DVDdoug- if they made music on vynal still i would buy vynal because when your like me and have digitale cd of music flying around there nothing like putin an old 33 RPM record on and listen to the pop snap and crackle of the record you cant replace a vynal nor will you ever see them again.

  14.8.2007 20:00 #15

• borhan9

  Children are more computer save than their parents. Hence scare tactics of viruses are not going to scare them off because a computer that is monitored by a computer save child is blocked like fort knocks.

  18.8.2007 04:32 #16

• procode

  Student Surveys: LOL
  
  In my experience, which is NOT inconsiderable;
  As a student at University (or College), he will have asked his 'like minded' (so no real balanced view there), 'and available at that time' (they too will have surveys to complete - on a different subject basis), M8s, will have filled in three 'survey forms' each (a realistic figure), and he will have completed sufficient himself to fulfill the SMALL requirement ..
  
  
  
  Peolpe download because most films/music/etc is overpriced, and more often than not, isn't worth the cost charged .. !!
  
  Some is worth the cost, but MOST certainly isn't ..
  
  My person belief is that;
  If it proves 'worth having', they will subsequently buy it - after trying it first ..
  
  And I'll stand by that statement,
  Procode ..

  18.8.2007 07:14 #17

• bagio

  To me, the answer is very simple. Don't charge so much for a product. If Microsoft charged $19.99 for Vista Ultimate, everyone would have it by now and Microsoft would still make a mint. Sell a none drm music song for $0.25 and the pirating would stop. Sell a none drm movie for $3.00 and there would be no more pirating. Once the original movie dvds used for manufacturing are made, the cost of reproducing the movies is miniscule.

  19.8.2007 06:18 #18

• Syzdante

  Quote:You have got to be kidding! Look around at all the stuff the current generation has. Cell phones, video games, computers, their own TVs & DVD players in their bedrooms, etc. The previous generation had none of these luxuries, but now most middle class kids do.The thing you have to realize here is that commodities like computers,cellphones, dvd players,and TVs are all part of the selection of products that actually see a drop in cost based on technical innovations. The same goes for, if you don't mind less fancy ones, cars, refrigerators, washing machines, driers and many other appliances. I just bought a mini fridge for my dorm and it cost about 100 bucks.
  
  Counter to this music doesn't experience this drop in consumer cost because there is no innovation making it cheaper to produce, cd's all ready only cost cents to produce and burning/writing them probably costs more in the cents you pay for the electricity over the long run. Problem is that with a controlled market like we generally have this doesn't drive down consumer cost, but jacks prices.

  19.8.2007 08:46 #19

• Unfocused

  @duckNrun
  
  I agree with you completely. Most people download just because they can. Most of the stuff that I've gotten wouldn't have earned a second glance from me in the store. At least now that I've downloaded a copy, I can say that I'm aware of some artists that I never would have had exposure to in the past.
  
  @DVDdoug
  
  You have to take into consideration, that this generation is significantly more in debt than the previous generation. Some of this debt I would assume has covered the cost of having a DVD and TV in every room of the house. Just because this generation has more material goods, it does not mean that the quality of living is any better now as opposed to then.
  
  On a personal note, I enjoy my life style now as opposed to say the 1920's, but that is only relative in that I am accustomed to the modern day. If I was alive in the 1920's, that is all that I would have known and therefore, my perceived quality of life would be equal to that of my perceived quality of life today.

  21.8.2007 17:54 #20