Research: Most People Don’t Even Want Artists To Profit, Let Alone Distributors

Another week, another survey on attitudes to piracy. This latest, by Opinion Matters/Tickbox.net, has found some more sobering (if, it has to be said, surprising) views…

Opposition to artist payments:
— Three out of five don’t think musicians should profit from downloads of their tracks and music videos.
— Two thirds feel the same way about royalties for film and TV makers.

Misunderstandings on online rights:
— 19 percent think no-one has any IP rights once their content is posted online (only a quarter of social network users thought they held on to their own copyright after they posted content to the likes of Facebook, YouTube and MySpace).

Freeloading still popular:
— 43 percent of those who download music, movies and games said they never paid for commercial downloads. Men are the worst offenders – half are freeloaders, against 38 percent of women.
— 59 percent are well aware of piracy laws.
— A fifth are aware of sources from which to download material without authorisation, rising to 57 percent of those aged 16-24, compared with a third of 25-34s.

At this rate, how is anyone going to make any money anymore?

Methodology note: Opinion Matters/Tickbox.net surveyed 2,004 UK adults aged over 16 in May.