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Survey: 67% of students don't care about illegal downloading
Chris Hynes, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 4/4/07 Section: News
Even with the risk of becoming involved in legal trouble with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), it seems college students nationwide are overlooking the repercussions of illegal downloading.
According to a survey conducted last week by SurveyU - a Brooklyn-based group of technologists and researchers with expertise in creating interactive survey research dialogue for the modern college student - 67 percent of students on college campuses are still not concerned with the with their illegal downloading habits.
The survey, which was conducted during the weekend of March 24, polled students on how many songs they own and how they received them; whether or not they side with musicians and the music industry, the government or other college students and how informed they are on legal issues surrounding digital rights.
Five hundred online interviews were conducted between March 24 and March 26 throughout college campuses nationwide.
The results showed that 53 percent of college students in the country are actually aware of the issue, but only 35 percent of that group are familiarized with their legal rights.
This rash of illegal downloading has led to drops in revenue throughout the music industry with factors like single-song purchases and file-sharing networks acting as contributors. When respondents were asked to guesstimate the amount of music purchased in their collection versus the amount that was not purchased SurveyU found that only 57 percent of people's total libraries had been bought.
"Clearly there's a sense among college students that once a song has been digitized, it's free," said Dan Coates, Co-Founder of SurveyU. "This is a generation that has grown up around digital media and is living on the fault lines of a digital rights issue."
Although revenues in the music industry are decreasing, students don't appear to believe that affects the well-being of musicians whose files they are sharing. When asked if they agreed with the statement, "Musicians don't suffer since their growing fan base buys concert tickets and makes other financial contributions to their success," 60 percent agreed.
According to a survey conducted last week by SurveyU - a Brooklyn-based group of technologists and researchers with expertise in creating interactive survey research dialogue for the modern college student - 67 percent of students on college campuses are still not concerned with the with their illegal downloading habits.
The survey, which was conducted during the weekend of March 24, polled students on how many songs they own and how they received them; whether or not they side with musicians and the music industry, the government or other college students and how informed they are on legal issues surrounding digital rights.
Five hundred online interviews were conducted between March 24 and March 26 throughout college campuses nationwide.
The results showed that 53 percent of college students in the country are actually aware of the issue, but only 35 percent of that group are familiarized with their legal rights.
This rash of illegal downloading has led to drops in revenue throughout the music industry with factors like single-song purchases and file-sharing networks acting as contributors. When respondents were asked to guesstimate the amount of music purchased in their collection versus the amount that was not purchased SurveyU found that only 57 percent of people's total libraries had been bought.
"Clearly there's a sense among college students that once a song has been digitized, it's free," said Dan Coates, Co-Founder of SurveyU. "This is a generation that has grown up around digital media and is living on the fault lines of a digital rights issue."
Although revenues in the music industry are decreasing, students don't appear to believe that affects the well-being of musicians whose files they are sharing. When asked if they agreed with the statement, "Musicians don't suffer since their growing fan base buys concert tickets and makes other financial contributions to their success," 60 percent agreed.
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