Friday June 5th 2009, by Piers Strickland
University College London has released an interesting study (link) about the position of consumers in the digital age.
Young people, in particular, claim that they do not feel guilty about their unauthorised file sharing and do not feel that they should have to pay for music – in the 15-19 age group, 69% felt this way.
The UCL study highlights interesting human emotional reactions which are used to justify this infringing behaviour, such as:
- denial of responsibility – e.g. factors beyond user’s control into play: “I urgently need this for my homework…”
- denial of injury to victim – e.g. the large record companies wont be hurt by this
- condemning the condemners – e.g. the record companies deserve what they get for their inflated prices
- appeal to higher loyalties – e.g. my brother really needs this content
Other key interesting issues were analysed:
- there are different perceptions when dealing with the physical and digital worlds and that each is evolving in its own distinctive fashion. The regulators need to realise this and not try and impose an analogue straight-jacket for a digital market.
- it has never been easier to break the law and you don’t even need to leave your house to do so.
- education not working as yet – strong empirical evidence
- no “victim” and no “crime” – strong empirical evidence
- should ISP and consumer electronic industries be more responsible for the fact that they offer the tools to copy so prodigiously?
