While it seems the creative industries are giving us more and more reasons to ditch piracy, a new study commissioned by the Department of Communications has found that a quarter of all Australian web users have consumed illegal content over the past three months.
As The Music Network reports, the study surveyed 2,630 people over the age of 12 and found that 43 percent of internet users had consumed media — movies, music, TV programmes, or video games — illegally, considerably higher than a similar study in the UK which yielded only a fifth of users.
The UK survey reportedly found that only 25 percent of participants illegally downloaded a movie, 26 percent had illegally downloaded music, 21 percent had illegally obtained a television show, and 18 percent of users had downloaded pirated games.
Minister of Communications Malcolm Turnbull said the study highlights the need to enforce regulations around illegal downloading and piracy, which the government is currently doing with the implementation of their new internet filter.
Image via Department of Communications
“However, rights holders’ most powerful tool to combat online infringement is making content accessible, timely and affordable to consumers,” he said. The study also shed light on the reasons why internet users are still consuming pirated content.
The most popular reasons included the lack of cost (55 percent) and the convenience (51 percent). However, the survey claimed users would most likely stop infringing if legal content was cheaper (39 percent), more available (38 percent), and adopted a universal release date (36 percent).
Additionally, responses indicated that 43% of Internet users were unsure as to what constituted as legal content online. This statistic applied to 59% of participants aged over 55, and 50% of female participants.
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“Theoretically, the costs of physically getting a product to Australia, for example a DVD, have been eliminated – therefore the prices should drop considerably,” wrote Labour MP Ed Husic in the Labour Herald last weekend.
“But this hasn’t happened because many rights holders won’t pass these savings on to customers or free up the way consumers get content. As a result, some consumers turn to websites offering free, pirated material.”
As Tone Deaf reported last month, the Federal Government has passed a bill that would effectively allow copyright owners to have infringing websites blocked by Internet Service Providers by applying for a court order.
