In collaboration with The Pirate Bay, it’s collecting data on the reasons people share copyrighted material and how they regard the legal implications. The aim of the Survey Bay project is to give policymakers more information – and, of course, influence their decision-making too.
“We felt the discussion and the research that was being done was lacking insight on the actual demographics of the file sharing community,” says Marcin de Kaminski, an internet researcher at the Lund University Internet Institute and the Cybernorms Research Group.
“What has been lacking is an understanding of what’s actually going on; it’s been based primarily on rumors or made-up facts about how things are online.”
The reponses that the group’s had so far tend to be, as you might expect, overwhelmingly concerned with justification for file sharing. Many users cite a ‘try before you buy’ attitude, indicating that not all illegal sharing actually represents a lost sale.
Others complain that the material they want to access isn’t available in any other way, or that their low income puts it out of reach.
“The motivation for file sharing is different between different countries. It’s quite obvious that in the US and Europe it seems to be a question of ease of access, maybe getting the latest movies and TV shows. The release dates of television series are still very domestically controlled,” says de Kaminski.
“Also, a lot of responses from other countries show that there it tends to be more about accessing information at all – it might be hard to get the content in a legal way.”
Digital Rights Management comes in for particular vitriol. “If there is a choice between DRM-protected copy of media in the store and non-protected media online, online always wins. (No need to activate, no problems with limited number of re-installs, no problem with selling used copies!)” reads one comment.
One very visible trend is the tendency for file sharers to present themselves as brave fighters for freedom, combatting repressive media interests. There’s great pessimism about the prospects of legal reforms – but confidence that, whatever the state of the law, file sharing will continue and even increase.
“People are getting more and more prepared to access The Pirate Bay, even though their internet provider may have locked it,” says de Kaminski. “Even though repressive actions are getting stronger in some countries, it’s really not affecting the amount of file sharing, as people are using techniques like virtual private networks.”
The data is available here.
Source: Posted on Forbes by Emma Woollacott
Written by thecodewhiz
Thecodewhiz is a tech savvy internet enthusiast,Designer,ICT Support Specialist, amatuer Dj and Photographer who loves sharing information.Find Technology tips and tricks and more here...
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