One-third of us copy DVDs
One-third of us have been copying DVDS, a new study shows.
Yeah, I know, it hit me as a surprise too. However, that's one of the findings found in a recent Consumer Home Piracy market research study carried out by Futuresource Consulting and sponsored by Macrovision.
The study was done in May 2008 in the U.S. and the U.K. with the sample size of more than 5,000 people. As it turns out, one-third of all the respondents in both countries admit to having made copies of prerecorded DVDs, on average about 13 titles each, in the last six months, up from just over a quarter of respondents in 2007. At this rate, before you know it, most of us will be copying DVDs.
The survey goes deeper and analyzes other information about the copiers, from their age, the kind of entertainment they would copy, to the method they use to get the job done and so on.
One of the motivations for the study is to find out the reason for the studios' decline in sale revenues of DVDs since the end of 2007. (Though the sale of Blu-ray media already largely offset it). It's interesting, though, the fact that the study didn't ask any questions about the consumers' renting habit (apparently they have to do this in order to make copies), but focus mostly to find out why the consumers would not buy more DVDs. What the studios want us to do is go see the movie in the theater, then rent the movie again to watch it at home, then go buy a Blu-ray copy of it, and while we are at it, buy a DVD copy of it, too. And they seems somewhate reasonable as most of the study's respondents indeed did admit that they would go buy the DVDs if they couldn't copy them.
In conclusion, the study showed that as studios' revenues from DVDs are in decline, protecting revenues is even more vital than 12 months ago. This basically means they don't feel like they are making enough money, and there's no definitive definition to what enough is.
So, who's to blame and what's the solution? I don't know and leave the answer to those who are directly concerned by the matter. If you are one of them, you can get the full report of the study by contacting Macrovison at cmurphy@macrovision.com.
In the meantime, the rest of us, guys, please either stop copying or be not so honest about it when it comes to filling market research questionnaires. Personally, I would rather see you do the former, but that's just because piracy is against the law, not because it has anything to do with me making enough money or not (which I don't, by the way).