A total of 32 million Americans aged 12 or above have downloaded a full-length movie sometime in the past.
The majority of United States online consumers don’t believe downloading movies illegally from the internet is a very serious offense.
A recent study done by Solutions Research Group found that most consumers suffered from the “Robin Hood effect,” when it came to stealing copyrighted movies from online peer-to-peer networks like Napster and Limewire.
According to the study director Kaan Yigit:
Most people perceive celebrities and studios to be rich already, and as a result don’t think of movie downloading as a big deal.
Only four in 10 of the respondents believed downloading movies was a very serious offense, compared to nearly 60% who felt the same about parking in a fire lane.
Compare that to the brick-and-mortar scenario where almost 80% of respondents rated stealing a DVD from a store as a very serious offense.
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Do remember, of course, that when someone steals a DVD from a store there is an expense to the store which paid a wholesale price for it. Downloading the movie involves no capital loss to the studios, merely potential profit.
Draicone, I see your point exactly, which is why I mentioned the Robin Hood effect.
This reminds me of the early days of the Napster and Metallica battles.