New copyright law fails to stop on-line piracy
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New stricter copyright legislation has not changed the attitudes of young people in Finland concerning the downloading of copyrighted material from the Internet. According to the results of an upcoming National Youth Survey, 36 per cent of young people questioned hold a "positive" or "very positive" view of on-line piracy.
In the previous survey, in 2005, the figure was 39 per cent.
According to 15/30 Research, the company that conducted the survey, a difference of three percent is not statistically significant; attitudes have remained unchanged for all practical purposes.
The younger the group, the more positive the attitude. The results do not correlate with whether or not the individuals see themselves as "rebellious", or "compliant", or with if they have a positive or negative view of the police.
Positive attitudes toward illicit downloading do correlate significantly with interest in computer technology. Computer enthusiasts also tend to approve of on-line piracy. With young people, the concept of piracy is restricted to copying material from web sites - and not the production of pirate copies of recordings.
Illegal downloading remains very common, with 52 percent of those aged 15 to 25 saying that they have downloaded films from the Internet, and with 45 per cent copying television programmes. No less than 70 per cent of men in the age group have downloaded films, and 60 per cent have downloaded TV programmes.
It can be assumed that all of them have acquired the material from an illegal source.
Under a new copyright law that took effect at the beginning of last year, downloading from an unauthorised source became an illegal act in its own right. In practice, there are no punishments for violating the law, but if the person downloading the material knows that the source is an illegal one, he or she might be compelled to pay compensation, and the computer used for the purpose can be confiscated.
Before the law changed, downloading was not banned, but distribution of pirated material was.
Helsingin Sanomat
