Seven out of ten file-sharers in the UK would stop naughtily downloading music from illegal P2P sources if they got a warning email from their internet service provider threatening to terminate their internet connection. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the finding of a new survey undertaken by Entertainment Media Research for London legal firm Wiggins.
The stat is relevant, of course, because of moves to force the ISPs to monitor their customers' internet usage, and to send warnings to any customers illegally sharing unlicensed content, ultimately cutting them off if they do not heed said warnings. As previously reported, the government has put pressure on the ISPs to better work with the music companies in this domain, threatening to legislate to that effect if no voluntary agreement is reached by Spring 2009.
66% said they would stop illegally downloading if they thought there was a stronger chance of being caught, with 68% saying they currently thought there was little chance of them being found out. 50% said media coverage of more downloaders being successfully sued by the record companies would make them reconsider - which is actually more than I'd have thought.
The survey, of 1600 UK consumers aged between 15 and 54, also included some interesting stats about digital rights management. 53% had never heard of it (though if you're primarily downloading MP3s from P2P sites you probably wouldn't need to have heard about it); only 20% said they had a good understanding of DRM; and 49% said they thought DRM was a good idea because it protected copyright holders, compared to 48% who saw it as a nuisance.
On non downloading matters, 34% used social networks, 8% read blogs, 4% wrote them, 51% still tune into radio, 47% regularly read books, a third said they bought newspapers less often as a result of their content being online, and many said they thought time spent poking friends on Facebook meant they spent less time on other media, in particular books and TV.