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Angus Reid Surveys Find Public Against New Media and File Sharing ISP Levies

By Michael Geist

Angus Reid Strategies has released two polls that find that the Canadian public is opposed to proposed new ISP levies for new media content creation and for file sharing.  80 percent of people surveyed said that a possible new CRTC levy on ISPs to pay for Canadian new media content creation was unnecessary and/or inappropriate.  In a second survey, 73 percent of respondents said that an ISP levy to compensate for file sharing was unnecessary and/or inappropriate.

The file sharing survey finds the public split on file sharing, but also finds that file sharers are more likely to purchase music and attend live performances.  45 percent of those surveyed said that downloading music was simply people doing what they should be able to on the Internet and 27% said that they shouldn't do it but that it is not a big deal.  Only three percent of respondents said that file sharers "are criminals who should be punished by law."  While the survey found that downloading still exceeds paid downloads, those downloading were also more likely to buy a CD (41 percent to 34 percent for non-downloaders) and more likely to have attended a concert in the past year (65 percent to 52 percent for non-downloaders).

Full post as published by Michael Geist on March 12, 2009 (boomark / email).