Music Downloaders Don't Care about the Law

We want to make things clear from the start, so we'll let you know that over half of those who download music do so illegally. It's not some sort of assumption or a bet, these are actual facts, reported by Mori for AOL. If this isn't an indication that RIAA's and BPI's efforts aren't taken seriously enough by Internet users, what would be? Fines and even threats about being sent to prison aren't that impressive and the illegal file-sharing continues to expand, say experts.

The same study shows that three quarters of those interviewed admitted that they had illegally downloaded music at least once. What’s worse is that only one in six participants to the study said that they exclusively use paid legal services like iTunes and Napster to download their music.

Another interesting aspect about this study is that people are ignorant about the law, despite the attention from the media about legal actions taken against illegal downloaders by the British Phonographic Industry. Only 25 per cent said that they understood the law. That's a pretty good indication of why this year has seen far more illegal downloading than the last, with 24 million tracks downloaded illegally compared to only 5.7 million in 2004.

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