Sending warning letters to people who download illegally copied music, TV shows and films from the internet will do little to stop them, according to research published on Wednesday.
Under a government-brokered deal last year some internet providers sent letters to persistent illegal file-sharers warning that their actions could land them in court, but according to the 2009 Digital Entertainment Survey, only a third of internet users consider the letters a deterrent. That was down from 70% in the same survey last year.
Asked whether the threat of having their internet connection cut off would stop them, four out of five internet users said they would stop downloading illegally.
The survey, by specialist media lawyers Wiggin, comes as Lord Carter prepares to publish his final Digital Britain report, which will include measures intended to stop Britain’s creative industries being washed away by the tide of online piracy.
Lord Carter has promised legislation to combat piracy and it is expected to codify the scheme under which warning letters are sent to illegal file-sharers.
“The findings of this report show that letter-sending alone will not be enough and that much more needs to be done if there is to be a real reduction in unlawful file-sharing,” said Simon Baggs, litigation partner at Wiggin.
The film and music industries believe that with an estimated six million people in Britain illegally sharing files, the suggestion they should pursue all pirates through the courts is Âunworkable and Britain should instead follow the lead of France’s recently passed Hadopi law, disconnecting persistent illegal file-sharers for a year.
But speaking last week — before he was reshuffled into the post of health secretary — culture secretary Andy Burnham said the British government did not support such draconian measures. Instead it wants to apply “technical measures” to crack down on persistent illegal file-sharers. The music and film industry has been lobbying Lord Carter in recent weeks about introducing online “speed humps”, which would involve ISPs slowing the internet connections of persistent illegal file-sharers. It is this sort of “technical measure” which is expected to be included in the final Digital Britain report.
Many in the ISP industry believe such measures will not deter pirates, who will merely disguise their traffic or turn to other ways of sharing content. Last week Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone, whose TalkTalk unit has campaigned hard against attempts to get Britain’s ISPs to police the web, likened battling the pirates to a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
“The mouse always wins in this battle and we need to be careful that politicians do not get talked into putting legislation in place that, in the end, ends up looking stupid,” he said.
Instead Dunstone, like many in the ISP industry, reckons the only way to secure creative industries is by building compelling services that consumers will pay for.
But consumers do not appear much excited by the idea of paying. The survey, designed and analysed by Entertainment Media Research in association with paidContent:UK which is owned by Guardian Media Group, asked consumers to say what they would pay for if currently free pirated material was made unavailable. Less than half were willing to pay for anything, with movies and TV in high-definition, at £3 a month, and unlimited TV on demand – at £8 a month – scoring highest, with 48% of consumers.
Most people would prefer their content to be free and backed up by advertising. Only recent movies not yet out on DVD were rated as worth paying for.
Only a quarter of the 1 500 internet users polled would consider paying for TV, a fact that may be connected with the runaway success of the BBC iPlayer. Only 13% of respondents had not heard of the iPlayer, A third of them, in contrast, had never heard of Channel 4’s catch-up service, 4oD, although that is likely to change next month when the broadcaster fills it with far more content.
The survey also showed that the social networking bubble may be deflating, with all the major social networks in decline except Facebook and Twitter. The number of people with a MySpace profile is down from 39% in the same survey last year to 21% this year, while Friends Reunited is used by 25% compared with 36% last year. The number of people with profiles on Bebo, meanwhile, is 13%, down from 24% in the 2008 survey. Facebook has held up well with 54% of respondents maintaining a profile compared with 55% last year while Twitter has gone from nowhere in 2008 to 11% of consumers polled using the micro-blogging site in 2009.
Part of the reason may be that 40% of respondents with a social network profile said they preferred having one social network site for everything. Facebook appears to be becoming that one site for at least half the people surveyed.
“The social network market is settling down,” said Alexander Ross, music and technology partner at Wiggin. “There appears to be a distinct gravitational effect towards a single network, and right now that network is Facebook.” – guardian.co.uk