Are we all outlaws, or what? A study by Pew Internet & American Life Project from surveys fielded during March – May of 2003 (i.e. before the RIAA started sending out subpoenas) shows that 67% of Internet users who download music say they do not care about whether the music they have downloaded is copyrighted, an increase from a July-August 2000 survey which indicated 61% — of a smaller number of downloaders — said they didn?t care about the copyright status of their music files.
What does this say? Well on the surface it looks bad — although not particularly newsworthy. But on closer inspection, two things strike me:
- Of course, these folk who are already downloading music are unlikely to come out and say they consider themselves felons. If they did care about copyright, then what are they doing downloading music? So I think the figures are a bit misleading.
- I suspect that, all the bluster aside, the number of people downloading music is going to drop off dramatically now the RIAA is getting heavy. Not the result I think should happen, but it’s inevitable. The Net is a mysterious place and most folk (including me) don’t really know what information can be gleaned about their browsing habits, so better safe than sorry. Whether that’s going to have the intended effect of shuffling everyone off to the mall to stock up on CDs is another matter. One likely outcome is small localized clusters of CD-MP3 sharers along the lines of old mixtapes and CD-borrowing. Not that I’m condoning piracy, oh no sireee. But, now the party’s over, who’s going to go back to buying overpriced CDs just for a couple of songs you like? Share your thoughts.