Study finds that one-third of consumers copy DVDs

by Darren Murph posted Jul 9th 2008 at 10:33AM

'Round these parts, we prefer to read the fine print first, so it should be noted that none other than Macrovision -- you know, the firm that purchased the now-cracked BD+ DRM scheme for $45 million last year -- financed this here study. According to poll results from US and UK consumers, around 1 in 3 individuals admitted to "making copies of pre-recorded DVDs in the past 6 months, up over a quarter from the previous year's study." Predictably, males aged 18 to 24 were most likely to wear an eye patch and own a DVD burner (if you catch our drift), and while revenue loss due to illegal copying is certainly a valid concern, researchers did find that 62% of American respondents (and 49% in the UK) were duping flicks they already owned. Arrr!

[Image courtesy of George Dillon]

Filed under: Industry, Other formats

Tags: copying, data, dvd, Futuresource, Macrovision, piracy, pirate, poll, report, research, ripping, study, survey

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highest Ranked

Xyzzy @ Jul 9th 2008 10:41AM

It's not piracy if you own the disk. It might be illegal (damn DMCA), it might not be, that part hasn't ever been challenged in court. But it's not piracy.

Neutral

TVGenius @ Jul 9th 2008 10:45AM

How did they word the question? I copy pre-recorded DVDs all the time. Ones I've recorded.

Highest Ranked

DrXym @ Jul 9th 2008 10:51AM

1/3 of consumers? No way. I'm sure it is a significant portion of users, say 3-4% but not 33%.

I usually play backups of my kid's DVDs because they get destroyed in no time and have other disks ripped for playing on the PS3. While it is fairly straightforward to make a copy, I certainly wouldn't say it is something that 1/3 of users could do. People just aren't that computer savvy. You need a PC with a DVD rewriter, burning tools, recoding tools (Nero Recode or DVD Shrink), DVD Decrypter / AnyDVD, a lot of patience and a general working knowledge of the pitfalls involved.

Some people obviously can and do pirate but that figure is nonsense. Wouldn't surprise me at all if the result was gamed by targetting a specific class of consumers to make the issue look a lot worse than it is.

Highest Ranked

cclaunch @ Jul 9th 2008 10:54AM

There's no way in hell 33% of consumers copy DVDs. The process is such a PITA on a computer and the consumer set top burners won't copy copyrighted materials. More BS "studies" to try to scare companies into pointless extra copy protection.

Neutral

andyg8180 @ Jul 9th 2008 10:59AM

"The firm polled 3,1613 users in the U.S. and 1,718 in the U.K."

If it was an internet poll, then OBVIOUSLY!! This is so far from the truth, its insane... I dont know many people in my circle of friends that actually burn DVDs...

Neutral

jeromey.shannon @ Jul 9th 2008 11:02AM

There are a lot of one-touch programs out there that 1) break DRM 2) rip 3) shrink 4) burn. It's not as hard as you think.
I rip every movie I rent to my hard drive to watch the commentary track and special features when I can, then trash it. I never re-burn them.

Neutral

Big Wizz @ Jul 9th 2008 11:13AM

I really, really, really, hope that isn't your real name.

Expect a knock from Big Brother anytime now...

Highest Ranked

mlody11 @ Jul 9th 2008 11:30AM

Interesting enough..

"...77 percent of US respondents would have legally purchased the titles if copying was not available, while 63 percent answered similarly in the UK"

"Most users are making copies of their own purchased DVDs but a significant proportion are also copying movies they've rented or borrowed.... 62 percent of US respondents and 49 percent of U.K... copied a new movie they own, while 38 percent of U.S. respondents and 30 percent of U.K.... copied a movie they've rented"

So, 62% - 49% copy ANY movies... (say 1/3 for ease), and of that 38% - 30% (say 1/3 for ease) copy movies they DO NOT own. So that means of 1/3 of the 1/3 are copying commercial stuff which is only 1/9th of the population, a tab above 10%. So now, only 3/4 of those would actually buy one if piracy was not available. So, only about 7.5% would actually buy one if piracy wasn't around.

Now ask yourselves you damn movie studios and MPAA... would your profits rise more or less than 7.5% if you stopped spending Billions on DRM and calling ALL of your customers pirates and pissing everyone off with it.

Neutral

burndive @ Jul 9th 2008 2:35PM

@mlody11, you missed one:

Of that 7.5% who would "buy one", as you put it, they reported that they would buy "at least a few" of the DVDs that they burned.

Which makes sense.

I'm putting that "few" at 10%.

Neutral

Rob @ Jul 9th 2008 11:54AM

This is as legitimate as those drug studies funded by their own manufacturers. Of course Macromedia is going to come out with these over-inflated numbers, it'd back up their business model. Fear and misinformation are very powerful tools. Just as Washington and the I.R.S. how they do it, they're masters at it.

Neutral

burndive @ Jul 9th 2008 2:37PM

... which means that they make more money renting movies to those who copy them than they would if those consumers just bought the movies that they "would buy" instead.

Neutral

Jeff @ Jul 9th 2008 2:43PM

If anyone cared about what consumers want and consumer satisfaction, companies would be trying to facilitate copying, since this study, to me, clearly shows consumers want to do this.

COPYING IS NOT A CRIME, AS MACROVISION WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE!!!!!

NOT EVERYONE THAT COPIES DVDS AND CDS IS A PIRATE!!!

JEEZ, WAKE UP IDIOTS AT MACROVISION.

Neutral

Jack Chance @ Jul 9th 2008 8:28PM

actually, it is crime, according to the DMCA to break DRM even it is for fair use.

It should not be a crime, and if it was ever taken to court the supreme court might find that it is unconstitutional, but it is a crime.

i don't believe 1/3 at all. Maybe 1/3 of engadget readers.

Neutral

Truth Teller @ Jul 10th 2008 8:20AM

In the UK it may be (note the may) an offense but it is not a criminal offense. Period.

In the UK it's merely a copyright infringement at best, which is a much lesser (civil) offense.

In the UK downloading (and copying to disc) to watch for your own non-commercial personal use is not a criminal offense.

This is the truth of the matter, no matter how much the corporations & their tame paid lawyers claim different.

Even in terms of UK civil law there has not been a sufficient body of case law built up to definitively say whether it is even a civil offense.

The industry (as with most big business) might well have the US legal system wrapped around it's greedy little finger but that outrageous & unjust state of affairs does not pertain everywhere else.

(although I note that in a recent case even a US judge was not prepared to to accept that sharing files in a shared folder constituted 'piracy' - which is yet another perversion of the launguage......piracy is a term which ought to be applied only to those who copy other people's work to illegally sell it for personal gain.

The anti-sharing principle is absurd and entirely based on pure corporate greed anyways, without sharing & being able to use what has gone before - which is a hallmark of much of human progress - we'd become a museum society)

Up the sharers!

(wise up corps, you'll never stop people sharing, we've known it's the right thing to do since we were little kids)

Neutral

David S @ Jul 9th 2008 3:15PM

New study finds that companies which sell DRM solutions to content providers overstate piracy in an effort to push more DRM solutions to content providers. Industry analysts in study also note that these new DRM methods will only be broken by real pirates, thus making commercial DRM solutions useless. In this new study industry analysts reveal the best way content providers can increase revenue and profit is to make better content, improve relationships with customers, and then make that content available via multiple distribution channels.

More news from the world of common sense at 11.

Neutral

retro77 @ Jul 9th 2008 7:10PM

90% of all statistics can be made to say what ever you want them to say, 50% of the time.

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