The most frequent digital infringers generally consume more...

infringement tracking studies to try to figure out the “complex relationship between general consumption, infringement, attitudes, and spending” across six key content types. It found that the top 10 percent of infringers accounted for just 1.6 percent of the over-12s Internet user population but were responsible for 79 percent of infringed content. The top 20 percent of infringers accounted for 88 percent of unauthorized uses, it said. Infringers were mostly males aged 16-34. But despite their high levels of infringement, the top 20 percent group also accounted for 11 percent of the legal content consumed, and they also spent much more over the six-month period analyzed for all content types on average (168 pounds, or $261) than either the bottom 80 percent of infringers (105 pounds) or non-infringing consumers (54 pounds), it said. The report divided infringers by their reasons for accessing protected content. Justifying infringers, with the highest levels of unauthorized access, felt they had already spent enough on content, a sentiment confirmed by their high total offline spend. This group generally liked to try before they bought, and appeared to be most receptive to good, well-priced legal offers, the report said. Digital transgressors were the youngest group of infringers, with the highest levels of downloading behavior and greater consumption and films and TV programs than justifying infringers. This group “showed the least remorse” but was most afraid of getting caught. These infringers appear to be most receptive to getting letters from ISPs alleging infringement, the report said. Free infringers formed the largest group, which was mainly defined by the fact that its members infringed because it was free. They were responsible for the great majority of illegal consumption of videogames and computer software. Ambiguous infringers had the lowest levels of digital consumption and the highest proportion of paid and legal content. They generally offered fewer justifications for accessing unauthorized content and for stopping infringing. “Infringers generally consumed more paid and legal content than the non-infringing segments, although this formed a lower proportion of their total consumption than it did for non-infringers,” the report said. The study also divided consumers who downloaded or streamed legal content only into four segments: (1) Simple streamers, who only streamed content and didn’t download anything. (2) Simple downloaders, who only downloaded and didn’t stream. (3) Paying consumers, who paid for most of the content they consumed and also spent a lot on offline content. (4) Free opportunists, who claimed to download because it’s free, and who consumed a higher volume of free content than any of the other non-infringing segments. The report found that 62 percent of people infringed only one type of content, mostly music or films. Where there was infringement of more than one kind of content, it generally included combinations of music, films and TV shows; in addition, infringement of computer software and videogames was more likely among those who infringed four or more kinds of content. Further analysis looked at the relationship between infringement and spending on content to see if unauthorized consumption could be converted to legal users. The data generally showed that as people accessed more infringing files they also consumed more legal content and spent more on it, the report said. The optimum price that infringers were willing to pay for single tracks or particular premium subscriptions generally rose as the volume of infringed content increased. This suggests that better legal alternatives could possibly convert some music infringers to paying customers for content if the price is right, the report said. “However, the relationship between infringement and spend[ing] is complex and the claims people make when asked questions about their likely future behaviours given changes to their options do not always closely reflect their real-life behaviour."