Copy Culture in the US and Germany
January 15, 2013 5:08 PM   Subscribe

The American Assembly has released their much-anticipated and well-presented study on Copy Culture. The random phone survey of 2303 Americans and 1000 Germans answers many questions about the demographics and public perception of file sharing and piracy. TorrentFreak pulls out some highlights.
posted by gilrain (17 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- Brandon Blatcher



 
From the picture on the cover I thought this would be about Tumblr.
posted by TwelveTwo at 5:49 PM on January 15, 2013


I'm going to have a hard time taking this research seriously after seeing the terrible graphs on the TorrentFreak article. That is not how you use a line graph!

Tufte wept.
posted by desjardins at 6:01 PM on January 15, 2013 [9 favorites]


Nearly half the population in the US and Germany (46% US; 45% DE) has copied, shared, or “downloaded for free” music, movies, and TV shows. We call this “copy culture.”

Download for free? What about all the content you can download for free legitimately. I downloaded for free a song from iTunes. So that puts me in the copy culture.
posted by birdherder at 6:07 PM on January 15, 2013 [4 favorites]


13% of all people with an Internet connection use P2P-services... 2% of all Internet users say they have [...] seeded files.

low rate, needing more seeds!! cmon ppl!!
posted by Flashman at 6:10 PM on January 15, 2013 [10 favorites]


Yeah, doesn't that line basically mean '11% of people don't really understand P2P'?
posted by pompomtom at 6:12 PM on January 15, 2013 [6 favorites]


Yeah, I was confused by the "downloaded for free" question. I don't get copies of music to which I am not legally entitled, but have download free samples or tracks when offered by labels or artists.
posted by Area Man at 6:14 PM on January 15, 2013


Download for free? What about all the content you can download for free legitimately. I downloaded for free a song from iTunes. So that puts me in the copy culture.

I wondered if maybe the actual survey question was more specific, but it's not. They asked about the percentage of a respondent's music that was "Downloaded for free from a website or file-sharing service"

They do ask specifically about purchasing pirated DVDs, so it's not like they were afraid to ask direct questions about illegal acts.
posted by jedicus at 6:20 PM on January 15, 2013


Yeah, doesn't that line basically mean '11% of people don't really understand P2P'?

That's not so bad, considering 84.6% of all P2P users do not understand P2P.
posted by vidur at 6:21 PM on January 15, 2013 [1 favorite]


Yeah, that too.
posted by pompomtom at 6:27 PM on January 15, 2013


Isn't Skype P2P as well? And the calls for free?
posted by infini at 7:46 PM on January 15, 2013


Should the government block sites that provide access to pirated content: 40% yes
Should the government censor sites that provide access to pirated content: 33% yes

Should ISPs try to screen user activity and remove pirated files? 58% yes
Should your internet use be monitored in order to prevent infringement? 26% yes

The power of question wording. (The second pair is admittedly less direct a comparison given the extra clause in the first one, but "screen user activity" versus "monitor your internet use" look roughly equivalent to me)
posted by vibratory manner of working at 11:31 PM on January 15, 2013 [2 favorites]


I'd consider 32% not understanding universality in ethics unsurprising : They're content if ISPs monitor "users", but unhappy if ISPs monitor their personal habits. You need deliberative democracy, not just referenda, or deliberative opinion poles, not just poles, for exactly this reason.

In practice, you could usually spend money convincing users that they are actually users to generate opposition because any legislative enforcement mechanism will inherently trample user rights though.

In any case, the copyright lobby has finally won their six-strikes policy by side stepping the legislature to deal directly with Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Cablevison, and Comcast.

We've observed a big uptick in seedbox and vpn services, as well as interest in tools like OneSwarm, since the six-strikes deal went through. I've no idea if the six-strikes "[re]education" campaign will push users towards buying more stuff, consuming less comercial stuff, or buying more circumvention services though.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:41 AM on January 16, 2013 [2 favorites]


jeffburdges: "deliberative opinion poles, not just poles, for exactly this reason"

Let's not polarize this debate too much. I fail to see why Polish people should be singled out.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:59 AM on January 16, 2013 [2 favorites]


In the UK it's still illegal piracy to copy a CD you own to your iPod. I'd love to see the figures for people thinking it's wrong so to do. (Reference, since no-one ever believes me!)
posted by alasdair at 5:16 AM on January 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


That is not how you use a line graph!
Tufte wept.


No kidding. I can't even begin to comprehend what the intent is with those two charts. I mean...Re-arrange the questions along the bottom and you get entirely different graphs.

Of course, having been the "art department" in a small software company, I recall being art-directed by the CEO when making charts for the annual report which...well...let's just say the charts were "designed" to visually imply "facts" that the numbers in the charts didn't support. So, I have a good idea what might be at-work with these charts, but I'm going to tell myself this is just office droids armed with a copy of Photoshop or Illustrator and no concept of proper information-design. I'll feel better.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:58 AM on January 16, 2013


hey look everybody! file sharing appears to be dropping off! you'd better get with the program if you want to be like the cool kids! what, this? this giant check from the RIAA that i'm holding? oh that's nothing...OMG, look! a tree octopus!
posted by sexyrobot at 9:50 AM on January 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


Copyright “Strike” Systems Are Modern Witch Trials
"there are no effective checks on the validity of the claims, they are just processed as valid."
posted by jeffburdges at 4:03 AM on January 18, 2013


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