NPD: Only 9% of US Internet Users Are Pirates
NPD: Only 9% of US Internet Users Are Pirates
Posted 03/24/2011 at 2:16pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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Content owners tend to speak frequently about the huge problem that p2p donwloads have caused for their businesses. A recent recording industry report said the music business would "struggle to survive unless we address the fundamental problem of piracy." A new report from NPD group, however, lets us all know how big of a problem piracy really is. As it turns out, only 9% of American internet users are pirates.
The data comes from the fourth quarter of 2010, and illustrates the rate of decline in p2p. Just three years ago, NPD found the rate to be 16% in the US. The rate of users isn't the only interesting statistic here. Average illegal downloads fell from 35 per quarter in 2007, to only 18 in the most recent survey.
The numbers from NPD do not include direct download services or illegal streaming sites. Still, the stats show that piracy may not be the fundamental problem that many industries would have us believe. As more reasonable and legal content alternatives reach the market, people will likely keep the trend away from p2p going. Have you given up your piratical ways in recent years?
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warptek2010
March 26, 2011 at 12:37am
I highly doubt those numbers... everyone blames file sharing services but no one ever mentions newsgroups.
Newsgroups (or Usenet) is where 99% of the files on file share services come from. You can shut down Limewire or restrict it but try doing that with Newsgroups. Ain't gonna happen.
FrancesTheMute
March 25, 2011 at 12:51pm
I'm curious if this just means that the content is getting so bad that people aren't even bothering to pirate it anymore.
Lipman42
March 25, 2011 at 8:03am
Regardless of the numbers, anyone who pirates games etc is commiting a crime. There are no good arguments for doing it. I work hard, fought for my contry many times, and did not do this so criminals could get away with anything. Why should I work hard to be able to afford things and other morons be given a free ride to get it for free?
So, as I said before, Hang the Pirates! So, Danthrax, if someone commits a crime then I say their future should be F'ed. I want the Game dev's and others to make tons of money so they can afford great engineers and designers and turn out the best games. They may not have talked much about games but we all know how big a deal that is, so again, HANG THE PIRATES.
Donhildenbrand
March 25, 2011 at 1:31pm
Well, I'm a vet too, who FOUGHT for this country, and who is a disabled vet as well, due to injuries recieved in the line of duty. So, I suppose I can play the vet card as well. That being said, I have no problem proclaiming that I... am a pirate. But, if you looked at my meager collection of pirated games, for example, they're all games that just can't be bought anymore. Try as I may, I just can't get myself to have a moral objection to that. Hey, I don't even have a moral objection to d/ling a newer game... but in my case, I'll D/L it to make sure it plays correctly, and if it does, and I like it, I'll BUY the sucker so I can have the multiplayer aspect.
I DID NOT fight for this country to enable the kind of greed that has a software company say "So you bought the game, and it won't worl for you? Tough luck. You opened the package, so your $60 is just plain wasted." Or, "You paid $60 for our game, but it's so buggy it won't play for more than 2 minutes at a time? Tough luck. Must be your PC. The buyer shoulda bewared..."
Yes, there are those who D/L willy nilly everything they can get thier hands on just so they can "stick it to the man". No, I really have no respect for that attitude.
And don't get me started on music.. I'm a singer/songwriter. Personally, I'd be tickled pink if people pirated my music. I'm certainly not getting rich off it it now, and I'd welcome the free publicity. I try, I really try, but I just can't seem to get myself to feel sorry for the people who have everything they can dream of, with millions in the bank, who whine about losing a $15 sale for crappy music. In the case of music, I find myself HOPING that piracy has the effect of causing bands and companies to A) embrace digital downloads, and B) stop making crappy filler music to pad out a CD with maybe 1 or 2 good songs on it.
Yes, there'll be those who D/L just for the thrill, but if companies, games or music, get with the program and make it simple, easy, and CHEAP to D/L thier material, (Just think- no physical medium... cuts WAY down on overhead...) piracy will takle another large leap downwards. Maybe part of the reason for the decline is precisly because it is becoming easier and cheaper to legally get what a person wants.
But anyway, my main point really is, the vet card really has no bearing on this issue. I've known vets and service members who were fine, outstanding moral perfectionists, and I've known those who would have robbed a baby blind at the first chace they got. I salute my fellow vets, but it really doesn't have a bearing on whether or not they'll pirate software or music. Just sayin'... ;-)
warptek2010
March 26, 2011 at 12:30am
Well said. I am against pirating BUT.... I am also against companies that take complete advantage of its customers as software companies do (Hello Microsoft). One of the arguments they use to justify their prices is to collect lost revenue from pirating. Excuse us, but why or how exactly is the paying customer responsible for that load of crap?
In the real world, companies would just chalk up pirating as a loss and move on... But this it seems, comes from a modern theory of business economics. One that states that companies in business ultimately donot pay for anything out of their own pockets and chalk it up as a loss... including taxes, employment expenses etc... it's all calculated into the price of the product or service and we pay for it. So, in essence we are subsidizing the pirate.
jaygregz
March 25, 2011 at 12:29pm
Woah. Lipman.. you insist on throwing the veteran cards out. Well I too and I'm sure many others here are veterans. See the fact of the matter is that I am not only a veteran of the military but I am veteran of war. I must conclude from your comments that you too are a veteran of "war", because you say that you FOUGHT for you country many times. There is a big difference between fighting for your country and serving in the military. Lets face it there are a lot of cush jobs in the services. So.. with that being said, You will kill a man but it's against your better moral judgement to listen to a song that you didn't rightfully pay for. If you have a problem with you working so hard to make ends meat maybe you shouldn't critisize the other people who are getting these so called "free rides". Perhaps you should just take a step back and look at the system that is requiring you to work so hard. Your over paying for goods. I'm not just talking about a good supply and demand trickle effect. I'm talking about someone making a percent of profit that is so high it should be illegal. I don't consider myself a robin hood of any sort but I'm certainly a survivalist. I'm not going to stand here thirsty besides your pond.. even if drinking from it is considered stealing.
CookieMonster
March 25, 2011 at 12:37pm
No No it's "contry"!!
And I think he's hoping the Veteran Cards will distract from his lack of understanding of basic economic concepts...
CookieMonster
March 25, 2011 at 12:23pm
You're forgetting that while SHARING files is a crime, merely downloading/obtaining them is in NO WAY illegal. That's how the law is written.
I would think you fought so hard for this "contry" for the rule of ACTUAL law, so it's interesting how you refer to people who have committed no crime as "criminals" since that's what you claim to have been fighting against.
cmftblynu
March 25, 2011 at 12:04pm
Dude I am in Iraq serving my country as we speak. So you never bought haji dvd's while you were here. No wii, or xbox games or software. The US pays these civilians to come and provide this crap to us... hate to break it to you bro, but it's piracy just like in the US. It is funny u can't bring the stuff home through customs, but can ship it. Anyway if you are gonna play the serving your country card, then don't. Because about 99% of all these soldiers are lining up buying haji dvd's so that has no bearing on who will engage in piracy... sorry.
bling581
March 25, 2011 at 10:08am
"I want the Game dev's and others to make tons of money so they can afford great engineers and designers and turn out the best games."
Yeah because that's what they all do with the record profits they make. I'm not going to debate the rights and wrongs, but it surely doesn't help when they release crappy console ports and charge $60.
Piracy may be illegal, but the industry (gaming, music, ect) has their own "crooks" as well.
EdgeTrigger
March 25, 2011 at 7:22am
Yup, that darn piracy is going to put Microsoft and Apple right out off business.
Yusonice
March 25, 2011 at 4:38am
Good thing in Asia, the government dont care! YAY to asia and FTTH
Danthrax66
March 24, 2011 at 9:02pm
Just in case none of you heard there is a bill in Congress right now that is aiming to make "illegal streaming" (which also means downloading in retarded old people/lawyer talk) a felony offense. SO basically downloading music will be worse than going to a store and stealing it, and you will never be allowed to vote again if caught, and will never get a job worth a fuck. YAY CORPORATE CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT!
I Jedi
March 25, 2011 at 5:28am
What's the H.R. Bill number? I would like to read what this bill says, as I doubt it is as serious as you put it.
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
March 24, 2011 at 7:57pm
All I can say is, "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!" I've got a couple terabytes I'd love to share with the world, compliments of the RIAA.
Return rights to the artists, and stop treating them like slaves.
aldude505
March 24, 2011 at 6:31pm
Although this sounds low that means that in America that over 27.5 million people still use some sort of pirating site and like what was mentioned since this does not include direct download sites and illegal streaming sties this really could be inaccurate. Also with the rise of Pandora and Grooveshark having to download a song has become somewhat obsolete, as Google says "to the cloud".
Also just to clarify, this company tracks music acquisition so this number is just about that form of media. If we were talking about TV shows and movies I think that number would be much higher.
Mighty BOB!
March 24, 2011 at 8:29pm
Knock about 7 million off of that number? Not all 300 million Americans use the Internet (like, you know, the toddlers and old people) and this is only tracking a percentage of Internet users. According to the World Bank, the US had about 230,630,000 Internet users as of 2008. However even the resulting figure (20.7 million if you round up to 231 million users) is higher than the NPD's estimated 16 million P2P users according to their press release which neither MaxPC or Ars Technica linked to (way to go journalism).
However, I think that the 9% figure sounds low to me. Although that may be because they were only tracking P2P use and only for music.
bskoreyko
March 24, 2011 at 4:27pm
I highly doubt that your average computer user knows how or what a direct download service is!?!?! Most DFU's I know of have dealt with barely know how to operate their computer let alone Limewire, Frostwire, etc. Unless mom and dad have bought an iPod with and iTunes download card I can't think of any other way for a kid, young adult, etc. to download their content... THINK, which of your friends hasn't or is still using a P2P client?!
Yes torrents are huge now and thanks to NETFLIX there is less reason to pirate but until something better than iTunes comes a long there will ALWAYS be illegal file sharing... WHY ON EARTH would I want to be bound to Apple products! No this is not a rant about Apple, I actually like them a lot but disagree with some of their business strategies.
I do think the statistics should be higher than this research groups suggests, every computer that I saw come into our retail store (when I worked there) has tons of P2P clients!
TommM
March 24, 2011 at 3:54pm
"The numbers from NPD do not include direct download services or illegal streaming sites."
So that "9%" means pretty much nothing then.
CaptainFabulous
March 24, 2011 at 3:46pm
"Still, the stats show that piracy may not be the fundamental problem that many industries would have us believe"
You don't say? I wonder what the music industry is going to blame next for their ever-dwindling revenue? Cause it couldn't possibly be due to their outdated and archaic business model and a general lack of any music actually worth buying, right?
michaelmaj
March 24, 2011 at 3:37pm
1st paragraph, second sentence:
"p2p donwloads have caused for their"
As you can see downloads has been misspelled.
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