Government Report: Piracy Still Rampant in Australia

SYDNEY: New research conducted by the Australian and British governments is shining a light on the wide scope of Oz's online piracy issue, finding that nearly half of the Australians interviewed had consumed at least one illegal file, compared to a fifth in the U.K.

The report, carried out by TNS, surveyed respondents about their activities in the three months between January and March 2015. When looking at all internet users who consumed content online over the three-month period, the firm found that 43 percent consumed at least one item illegally and that movies (48 percent) had the highest rate of any illegal consumption, followed by music (37 percent), TV programs (33 percent) and video games (22 percent).

It is estimated that in the first quarter of 2015, 95 million movies and 82 million TV programs were illegally consumed online. Movies consumed digitally were twice as likely to have been consumed illegally as other file types. Two thirds (66 percent) of digital movies consumed were done so illegally, compared to 36 percent for TV programs.

Price sensitivity was one of the issues identified. To convince a majority of digital movie consumers to pay for digital movies, a single movie download would need to be priced at $5 and a movie subscription service would need to be priced at $10 a month. The most commonly cited reasons for infringing were because it is free (55 percent), convenient (51 percent) and quick (45 percent). A third indicated it meant they could try before buying (35 percent) or felt legal content was too expensive (30 percent).

The report also examined what could be done to make infringers stop. A reduction in the cost of legal content was the most commonly cited factor that would encourage people to stop infringing (39 percent of infringers), closely followed by legal content being more available (38 percent) and being available as soon as it is released elsewhere (36 percent). A number of strategies had a greater likelihood of motivating those consuming a mixture of legal and illegal content than those consuming only illegal content: everything they want being available legally, everything they want being available legally as soon as it is available elsewhere, and availability of a subscription service.