Piracy Still Popular

Doctor Jo Bryce, from the University of Central Lancashire and doctor Jason Rutter, from the University of Manchester decided to verify the effectiveness of anti-piracy campaigns organised by the government and media producers. The research, which involved 2,400 British citizens, gave a surprising result: in most cases, people surveyed do not see anything wrong in using illegal copies, perceiving their popularity mostly as an inevitable consequence of the development of new technologies. In cinemas and in the press, the British encounter advertisements which emphasise the economic consequences of piracy, also backed up by arguments about it providing financial support for organised crime. However, it turns out that most people do not purchase illegal copies from shady characters in the street, but obtain them from colleagues at the office or at school. Moreover, the subjects have been entirely missed by comparing downloading a game from the Internet, while avoiding expensive, legal games is an important element of managing finances for quite a large number of youngsters.