Legal Research

Teens and Copyright

On January 23, 2008 KRC released a memorandum with the "Topline Results of Microsoft Survey of Teen Attitudes on Illegal Downloading"

It "summarizes the topline results of an online survey of 501 teenagers attending seventh through tenth grade, conducted by KRC Research on behalf of Microsoft Corporation. The interviews were conducted between January 14 and 17, 2008. The estimated margin of error for the national study is ±4.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level."

KEY FINDINGS

? "Fewer teens expect punishment for illegal use of Intellectual Property than stealing goods. Fewer than half of teens surveyed (48%) thought they should be punished for illegally downloading materials over the Internet, while most thought they should be punished for things like stealing a bike (90%), stealing a video game at the mall (89%) or stealing a cell phone from a locker at school (85%).

? Awareness of the law impacts teen attitudes towards illegal downloading. The more teenagers know about laws against illegal downloading, the more they will come to think it should be a punishable offense. Likewise, teenagers unaware of the rules are more tolerant of illegal activities.

? Among teenagers who said they were familiar with the laws, more than eight in ten (82%) said illegal downloaders should be punished. In contrast, slightly more than half (57%) of those unfamiliar with the laws said violators should be punished.

? Parents play a critical role for teens. Teens report their parents are their main source of information about what they can and cannot do online. Reinforcing the critical role of parents is the fact that some of the strongest deterrents to stealing and illegally sharing content are the thoughts of potential consequences.

? Teens challenged by peer pressure and their wallets. Among teens, peer pressure and cost also have a strong impact on attitudes towards illegal downloading."

Read the memo here. At the end, the conclusion about pricing is interesting.

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on February 15, 2008 (boomark / email).