UCL study examines online behaviour and exposes scale of illegal downloading

Links:

sabip.org.uk/" target="_self">Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http:/www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/digitalbritain-finalreport-jun09.pdf

A UCL study of online consumer behaviour has uncovered a huge increase in the scale of illegal downloading, changing attitudes toward intellectual property and widespread confusion about copyright law.

The study - Copycats? Digital Consumers in the Online Age - is the first piece of research to examine evidence from across the copyright industries and across all age ranges.

The Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property Policy (SABIP) commissioned researchers from the UCL Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research (CIBER) to review all the existing evidence and look at the implications of online consumers' evolving behaviours and attitudes.

The study identified two distinct cultures, online and in the physical world, characterised by different attitudes towards the consumption, downloading and sharing of copyright material.

Digital consumers live and act in an age of one-click search, downloading and sharing of billions of pounds worth of copyright material, which they perceive as 'free'.

The scale of illegal downloading is vast and growing; there is a strong belief that there is 'no victim and no crime'; and it has never been easier to break the law.

Researchers found that on one peer-to-peer network at midday on a weekday, there were 1.3 million users sharing content. If each 'peer' from this network downloaded one file per day, the resulting number of downloads (music, film, television, e-books, software and games were all available) would be 4.73 billion items per year. This amounts to around £12 billion in content being consumed annually - for free.

The study also found that consumers are confused about what is legal and not legal;  there are fewer cues to guide ethical behaviour in the online world; and there are major gaps in the evidence base to help government and industry understand and deal with illegal downloading. As a result, public policy is in danger of being made in a vacuum.

The research offers much-needed background as Lord Carter prepares to publish Digital Britain, a plan to secure the country's place at the forefront of the global digital economy.

For more information about the study follow the links above.

Image: a consumer downloading files on a laptop.

UCL context

UCL's Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research is a policy-led, consumer-driven, interdisciplinary and independent centre that maps, monitors and evaluates digital information systems, platforms and environments using innovative research methods.