世論 What Japan Thinks

For a change, this recent survey from iShare into music downloading laws found a significant number willing to admit their thievery.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 8th of January 2010 443 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.7% of the sample were male, 30.7% were in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, and 38.6% in their forties.

As I’m not the sort of person who downloads music willy-nilly just for the sake of filling up their iPod, I’ve never downloaded more than just a dodgy track or two. I’m probably also being a fuddy-duddy by saying that the iPod and said illegal downloading just because one can is a behaviour I cannot condone in the slightest, and I’m sure in some way contributes towards the youth of today having the attention span of a goldfish. I used to play just the one CD or tape for about a week or more, but when I last had my hands on a SonyPod, I found myself filling it up with all my CDs then spending more time skipping than listening. Oh, and the software was useless and at least twice wiped its own database.

Anyway, back to the survey. This month the law has changed such that downloading illegally uploaded contents is now illegal.

Research results

Q1: How do you most often purchase music? (Sample size=443)

	All	Male N=260	Female N=183
New CDs	50.3%	47.7%	54.1%
Used CDs	9.9%	7.7%	13.1%
Internet download	10.4%	11.5%	8.7%
Don’t buy music	29.3%	33.1%	24.0%

Q2: Have you even encountered download contents (music or film) on the internet that you thought were pirated? (Sample size=443)

	All	Male N=260	Female N=183
Yes	60.7%	66.9%	51.9%
No	39.3%	33.1%	48.1%

Q3: From this month, January 2010, a change in the law has been enacted such that it is now illegal to download illegally uploaded contents. Were you aware that this change had happened? (Sample size=443)

	All	Male N=260	Female N=183
Yes	46.0%	53.1%	36.1%
No	54.0%	46.9%	63.9%

Q4: Although the law changed to make it illegal to download such contents, no penalties are set and if one is not aware that the action is illegal then the law does not apply. What do you think of this? (Sample size=443)

	All	Male N=260	Female N=183
Should be a penalty	30.5%	24.6%	38.8%
Law is OK as it is	35.9%	34.2%	38.3%
Shouldn’t have such a law	33.6%	41.2%	23.0%

Q5: With the introduction of this law, do you think upload and download of copyright infringing works will decrease? (Sample size=443)

	All	Male N=260	Female N=183
Will decrease	12.6%	13.8%	10.9%
Will decrease just temporarily	47.4%	46.5%	48.6%
Won’t change	38.1%	37.3%	39.3%
Will increase	1.8%	2.3%	1.1%