Government – 6.7 Million UK Internet Users Downloaded Illegal Content

The Intellectual Property Office has published its sixth study into the extent of online copyright infringement by broadband ISP and mobile customers, which estimates that 15% of UK Internet users aged 12+ (6.7 million people) had consumed at least one item of “illegal” online content (down from 18% last year) and 5% “exclusively consumed illegal content” (down from 6%).

The research, which covered the period from March to May 2016 and surveyed around 5,000 people via various different forms of communication (phone, online etc.), noted that the levels of infringement varied significantly by content type. The highest levels of infringement for all Internet users were recorded for music (8%), TV programmes (7%) and films (6%).
Furthermore it’s noted that the proportion of all Internet users aged 12+ who consumed content “exclusively legally” has increased to 44% since last year (41%). In keeping with this the study states that the “small but significant drop in online copyright infringement” has coincided with a rise in legal streaming services (e.g. Spotify, YouTube, iPlayer, Amazon Prime, Netflix, NOW TV etc.).
Overall over half (52%) of Internet users consuming content online now use streaming services, while downloading content is becoming comparatively less popular (39%). Respondents who streamed content online cited convenience and cost as two of the main reasons for doing so. On the flip side use of Peer 2 Peer (P2P) file sharing, which is so often used for Internet piracy, continues to drop from 12% to 10% at the total level (includes legal use) and from 26% to 23% among infringers.
Interestingly the most commonly cited reasons for infringing were because it is free (49%), convenient (45%) and quick (42%). Speed and convenience have both shown increases in 2016, with the results from last year being as follows: free (49%), convenient (43%) and quick (37%).