With more online Americans downloading from online music stores and friends’ portable digital players, peer-to-peer online file sharing use has fallen in recent months, according to a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
“Current file downloaders are now more likely to say they use online music services like iTunes than they are to report using p2p services,” said report authors Mary Madden and Lee Rainie, announcing the study March 24. “The percentage of music downloaders who have tried paid services has grown from 24% in 2004 to 43% in our most recent survey. However, respondents may now be less likely to report peer-to-peer usage due to the stigma associated with the networks.”
Surveying 1,421 adult Netizens between mid-January and early February, Pew researchers discovered that 19 percent of current music and video downloaders—about seven million adults estimated—have downloaded music files from someone else’s iPod or MP3 portable digital player, with 4 percent saying they no longer download music files.
Approximately 28 percent (an estimated 10 million people) say they get music and video files through e-mail or instant messaging, Pew determined, while adding there is some overlap between the two, as nine percent said they get it both ways.
Overall, Madden and Rainie said, about 48 percent of current downloaders use sources other than peer-to-peer or paid music or video online services to get their songs or films, and other sources also included music and movie Websites, Weblogs, and online review sites.
The new Pew study also showed 53 percent of Netizens believe companies who own and operate file-swapping networks should be held responsible for music and movie piracy, while 18 percent think the users of those networks should take the burden and another 18 percent said they were unsure who should.
But there’s a sharp division as to whether government enforcement against online piracy will really work well, according to the study, with 57 percent of broadband users surveyed saying a government crackdown would fail and 42 percent of people surveyed overall saying government enforcement won’t work well.
