Movie Downloading Study

[Nomad559]

The Register

-Snip-

About one in four Internet users have downloaded a movie," begins a recent, much-publicized report on online file-trading. Thing is, the statement is not even almost true.

Last week, the Online Testing Exchange (OTX) and MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) shocked the world with their "one in four" claim. The two organizations surveyed more than 3,600 users in 8 countries and discovered an astonishingly high rate of movie downloads. Their report released last week captured headlines such as "Movie piracy on Internet call an epidemic" and "Alarm at Internet movie piracy" and "Movie downloading costs MPAA billions.

However, it's not actually one in four Internet users that have downloaded a movie, rather one in four broadband Internet users. That last broadband tidbit is in the report's fine print. And there are even more interesting findings that didn't make their way into the fine print at all.

We couldn't help but think that the "one in four" number seemed a bit high. We know lots of Internet-savvy types and the issue of movie downloading does not come up a lot. It's there, but it's not "one in four" there, even with broadband users. So what gives?

[plcdude]

1. where are these movies

to download?

[LDS Jock]

3. you can find them on the file sharing programs

such as limewire, winmx, kazaa. Even movies not out on DVD yet, such as "Passion of the Christ" can be found online. Not that it will be your first choice in downloads.

[Marnieworld]

4. newsgroups

I will not confirm or deny knowing more though ;)

[lazarus]

2. and yet

the poor, abused, pirated MPAA posted record profits last year.