Study Finds Pervasive Movie File Sharing

January 24, 2007 By Geoff Duncan

A new research study from the Solutions Research Group finds American consumers are tuning into downloadable films...and don't consider illegal downloads a serious offense.

A new research study from the Solutions Research Group (PDF) finds that American consumers really are starting to watch movies that they rip from DVDs or download to their PCs.

According to the report, some 32 million Americans aged 12 and over have downloaded a ful-length movie at some point in the past—that’s 18 percent of the U.S. online population. Of those, some 20 million are regular downloaders, having pulled down a movie in the last month. Among movie downloaders, the study claims that some 80 percent get content exclusively from file-sharing sites and P2P networks.

“There is a Robin Hood effect,” commented Kaan Yigit, Study Director, in a statement. “Most people perceive celebrities and studios to be rich already and as a result don’t think of movie downloading as a big deal.”

The study claims that only 40 percent of respondents believe downloading copyrighted movies from the Internet is a serious offense, compared to some 78 percent who believe taking a DVD from a story without paying for it would be a serious offense.

The study also offered a profile of movie-download users: 56 percent of study respondents watched a DVD on a PC at some point, while 29 percent viewed a DVD on a PC within the last month. Some 25 percent of respondents have watched a streaming television program on their PCs. The study also found that the “typical” movie downloader is 29 years of age, and has 16 titles stored on their computer. Some 63 percent of movie downloaders are male, while 37 percent are female.

Yigit added: “The current crop of ‘download to own’ movie services and the new ones coming into the market will need to offer greater flexibility of use, selection and low prices to convert the current users to their services—otherwise file-sharing will continue to thrive.”

Showing 10 comments

eric at 6:29am 29th January 2007 I am using TVKoo to watch movie and sports, much better in quality and faster than BT. It is one of P2P live streaming product, free of charge, you might download from www.TVkoo.com
pete at 4:47pm 25th January 2007 touche
Hal Jordan at 2:49pm 25th January 2007 Robinhood? More like Feeding the 5,000!
Here's why I do not think that getting a copy online is NOT stealing like Robin Hood: When Hood steals your DVD, you lose the ability to sell or enjoy that DVD, that is not the case with file sharing because you do not lose those abilities when copies are shared. In a manner you argue that Jesus was committing piracy, depriving the bread and fishers of revenue when he fed the 4,000 and the 5,000 in his time, but did he steal the bread and fish by making copies of those? When Jesus turned water to wine, was he making counterfeit copies of jewish wine and depriving the wine dealers of sale? What is so immoral with making copies and sharing when God did it all the time?
sewdough at 2:11pm 25th January 2007 Ah, the Robin Hood theme surely applies! While it is stealing, many consumers feel Hollywood has been stealing from them for quite awhile. Ease, revenge, and laziness are all strong forces driving the U.S. today.
Kitty Tibet at 1:01pm 25th January 2007 I'm 44, and I've bought a 1000 CDs and 300 DVDs in my life, and I've gone to see about 200 films. So many of those songs and movies have been sub-par and not worth a nickel, that I figure I'm owed. So I download to get back some of the thousands of dollars I've forked over to Hollywood and record companies that sold me crappy products. When I do download something excellent though, I go ahead and buy that artists CD or movie, to have a better quality copy.
Mike at 11:23am 25th January 2007 @ Benji. So what, you don't see movie reruns at all? Do you think that movies are only played once end never again? It's much to expensive for TV channels to buy a unique movie for each day. Especially for those "movie only" channels.
Monk22 at 11:15am 25th January 2007 i might care if it wasnt 10 bucks to go see some craptacular remake from 30 years ago. make something original and not horrible and ill gladly pay you for it. until then kiss my ass movie companies.
BKGeoff at 11:06am 25th January 2007 I think the big question/issue here is, what can the studios do to compete with free? Honestly I think that if they can offer a reliable download service, with good quality, in a non-restrictive format, it'd really curb the piracy market. It'll never kill piracy, but it would slow down. I know I have a huge collection of DVDs I've purchased, ripped to my PC. (and yes, I know thats illegal, but it shouldn't be). I watch them from my MediaPortal PC hooked up to my hdtv. Now if I could download a movie without DRM and plug it into that same system, I would pay for it. But right now, I'd have to install some other random 3rd party software that spys on me. They need to make software that is SIMPLE, WORKS, and NON RESTRICTIVE. I believe that people would pay for that. If I could get the exact same experience from a legal download site, as I could from a torrent, I'd choose legal.
Benji at 8:54pm 24th January 2007 Umm Brett the story relates to movies, not TV shows. And downloading movies IS illegal....
Brett Conrad at 8:53pm 24th January 2007 My viewpoint when it comes to downloading TV shows is this: If it's free to record and TiVo the darn show, it should be free to download as well. Sometimes these companies will do anything to make a buck. Imagine paying $2 on iTunes for an episide of BattleStar Galactica only to find out a rerun of the same exact show will be on in a day...