US citizens prefer to be fined, not shunned for 'piracy'

HALF OF THE US is quite happy to be called a 'pirate', and regularly downloads or copies copyrighted material, according to a survey.

The survey by Columbia University found that copyright infringement is common (PDF) amongst nearly all generations of US citizens. It reported that 46 per cent of adults admitted downloading or copying material, while 70 per cent of 19-29 year olds said the same.

Low level transgression seems to be most common and just around two per cent of adults suggested that they were serial offenders with over 1,000 movies in their collections, for example. However, copying seems to be the done thing, and the research found that the behaviour is "widely accepted" between friends and family.

The good news is that while governments favour a kick-in-the-doors approach to tackling so-called 'piracy', legal file streaming services can help to displace it. Of the 30 per cent of Americans with copyrighted material, almost half said that they were less likely to do so now that they had signed up to a low cost file streaming service.

Only half of Americans, 52 per cent, would support penalties for downloading material however, and would limit punishment to warnings and fines. Only 16 per cent said that they would support disconnection from the internet, a measure that has been promoted in the UK under the Digital Economy Act and in the US with the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that's being pushed in Congress by the media content cartels and their MAFIAA lobbyists.

Most survey respondents would support fines of around $100 for proven copyright infringement, the survey found. µ