Stopping digital pirates: a study about the perceived
efficiency of approaches employed by music and movie
industries to stop file sharing in P2P networks

Abstract: Music and movie industries are worried about the negative effects that the
popularity of P2P file sharing networks might have. To try and put an end
to this, they have employed several different approaches. The purpose of
this research was to find out what age groups most actively involved in file
sharing think about these approaches, as well as come up with improvement
suggestions, and to gain more understanding about their opinions about file
sharing in general. A quantitative research approach was used and data was
collected with the help of a survey from 651 mainly Finnish respondents
under the age of 30. The data was analysed using statistics.

Almost half of the respondents were active file sharers while only 9% are
active first sources, copying material and posting it online. Findings
support the theory that males are more active as females. Both genders have
an acceptable opinion towards downloading music and movies for private use
even though the knowledge of copyright issues is relatively good and a large
part of them think that sharing this material in P2P networks hurts
financially both movie and music companies and performing artists. One
reason for this accepting attitude is that majority of all respondents think
that CDs and DVDs are too expensive.

Lawsuits, Internet shops and copy protection were seen as the most effective
ways to stop file sharing. This is interesting because the majority of the
respondents at the same time think that the lawsuits of the industries
against private persons are not justified and think that the kind of copy
protection scheme cannot be created that nobody can break.

Educational and anti-piracy campaigns and watermarking were seen as the
least effective ways. Active P2P users and first sources of material in P2P
networks do not have as much faith in technological solutions as those who
do not download, but they have a more positive opinion about new and more
flexible business models like for example Internet shops and adding value to
the traditional product by using opendisc technology than those who do not
use P2P networks.