Teens Oppose Fines For Music File Sharers.

Results of a new Harris Interactive survey show that two-thirds (66%) of American teenagers (13-18 years old) oppose fining individuals who offer copyrighted music online for other people to download while about one in ten teens (13%) believe that people who offer copyrighted music on their computers for others to download should be fined. Half of teens (52%) strongly oppose such fines and two in ten teens (21%) neither support nor oppose the fines.

Teen boys (69%) and girls (62%) are equally likely to oppose the fines, although boys are more likely than girls to strongly oppose the fines (60% vs. 45%), and girls are more likely than boys to neither support nor oppose the fines (28% vs. 15%).

In addition, the poll found that most teens believe that sharing and downloading of copyrighted music should be legal. Three quarters (78%) of them feel that sharing (letting other people download music from them) should be legal. Additionally, 74% of teens said that downloading copyrighted music files from the Internet without paying for it should be legal.

On September 8, 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed over two hundred high-publicity civil lawsuits against individuals who had been sharing copyrighted music files on peer-to-peer Internet networks. Many of these lawsuits resulted in fines paid by the file sharers. This represented the largest legal measure taken yet by the recording industry to deter the public from sharing copyrighted music over the Internet. In the current poll, teens indicate that they are even more supportive of the legality of file sharing than file downloading.

Downloading music from the Internet is common among teens (80% have downloaded music in the past year), yet only one in three teens (34%) who have downloaded music say they have paid for a music download at some point. Those who download music but have never paid for a download say they download because:

They only like one or two songs on a CD (59%),

They want to get music quickly (48%),

They believe that music is too expensive to buy (46%),

They want to get music for free (44%),

They want songs that are not available for sale (40%), and

They believe that music should be shared (38%).

“The results of this Harris Interactive survey show that American teenagers, who account for a significant amount of the revenue generated by the music industry, do not agree with the current legal actions that are being enforced against music file sharers,” said Marc Scheer, Ph.D., senior research associate, Harris Interactive. “Although they have grown up at a time when music has been available to them online for free, this poll indicates that getting music for free is not the primary reason that teens download. Perhaps it may be possible to develop a music downloading process that is rewarding to both consumers and the recording industry alike.”

For more information at http://www.harrisinteractive.com