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CONTENT PRODUCTION AND PERCEPTION OF COPYRIGHT: AN ANALYSIS OF HABITS AND BELIEFS OF INTERNET USERS
A paper by Simone Aliprandi and Andrea Mangiatordi1, published in European Journal of Law and Technology, Vol !, "o # $%&1#' and released under a (reati)e (ommons Attribution * ShareAli+e # & unported license
Please cite as: Aliprandi, S. & Mangiatordi A., "Content production and perception of copyright: an analysis of habits and beliefs of internet users", European Journal of La and !echnology, "ol. #, $o. %, &'(%. More details about the project: www.aliprandi.org/copyrightsurvey. Other related articles: http://copyrightsurvey.blogspot.it/p/related-articles.html.
ALIPRANDI & MANGIATORDI, Content production and perception of copyright (EJLT, 2013)
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Table of content
(. )ntroduction * &. State of the art * &.(. "+eha,iors of consu-ers of digital content in )taly. !he case of file sharing" ./onda0ione Luigi Einaudi &''12 * &.&. "3isco,ering beha,iors and attitudes related to pirating content" .4 C &'('2 * &.%. !he report on inno,ation culture in )taly .5ired6Cotec &''72 * &.#. !he 8lobal soft are piracy study .+SA &'('2 * %. !he research * %.(. 9uestionnaire:s structure * %.&. 3ataset description * #. Method and results * #.(. 4rincipal Co-ponents Analysis * #.&. Cluster Analysis * ;. 3iscussion and Conclusions * +ibliography.
Abstract
!his article presents an analysis based on data fro- an open dataset -ade a,ailable by an independent e-pirical research on the topic of <Copyright in the digital age=. !he original data includes infor-ation about attitudes, social perceptions and le,els of a areness. After describing the initial ob>ecti,es of the research and presenting the set of ,ariables considered, an in6depth analysis is here discussed, focusing on the si-ilarities and differences encountered in distinct categories of respondents. !he -ain ob>ecti,e of this analysis is to test the soundness and the descripti,e po er of the classification proposed in the original study, hich di,ided respondents into the four ith those groups is categories of <8eneric=, <Acti,e=, <Creati,e= and <4rofessional creati,e= users. ?ther possible clusters are identified here, and their possible associations discussed. @esults indicate that the ,ie s of authors of digital content about the practice of illegal do nload tend to differ fro- those of non producers. $on publishers of digital content seeto be al-ost eAually distributed bet een those tolerate it. ho are against do nload, and those ho
ALIPRANDI & MANGIATORDI, Content production and perception of copyright (EJLT, 2013)
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Intro !ct"on
%his article describes a second and more speci&ic wor' o& analysis and interpretation on a dataset collected through an independent empirical research which was conducted between (ebruary and )une *+11 as a Ph.". &inal project. %he title o& the original study was ,-opyright in the digital age: attitudes. social perception and level o& awareness,. "iscussion about the main results o& this initial survey are available both on the web* and in articles appeared on open access journals ! liprandi *+1*a. liprandi *+1*b. liprandi *+1/#. %he initial research study aimed at providing an impartial approach to the analysis o& intellectual property issues. ta'ing into direct account the viewpoints o& 0average citi1ens2. as opposed to those o& sta'eholders and e3perts. s a matter o& &act. very &ew studies address such &ramewor' so &ar. Most o& them have been produced by major entertainment or so&tware companies in order to monitor and anticipate mar'et trends. thus considering common individuals as consumers and potential buyers. instead o& users in more general terms. %his strategy gives way to a distorted perception o& collected data. or at least provides a very limited perspective on their outcome and analysis. %here&ore. this study &ocuses on a di&&erent perspective and will address three broader research themes: the most common behaviors o& 4nternet users when they get. distribute.
or otherwise deal with online content under copyright$ the average perception o& copyright itsel&. that is. whether users see it
as a primary or minor problem. a use&ul tool or a useless burden. etc.$ the level o& awareness o& 4nternet users about mechanisms and
ALIPRANDI & MANGIATORDI, Content production and perception of copyright (EJLT, 2013)
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actual level o& 'nowledge on related issues. 4n this wor'. the descriptive in&ormation is not going to be &urther commented: the intent is rather to learn more about who answered the original 5uestionnaire. by tracing user pro&iles adopting a bottom-up approach based on correspondence in aswers.
ALIPRANDI & MANGIATORDI, Content production and perception of copyright (EJLT, 2013)
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#$#$ &Be%a'"ors of cons!(ers of ")"tal content "n Ital*$ T%e case of f"le s%ar"n)& +Fon a,"one L!")" E"na! " -../0
%he study that comes closest to the spirit and purpose o& this paper is de&initely the one conducted in *++: by the (onda1ione ;uigi 8inaudi. a research institution operating in 4taly. %he study was divided in three parts: in the &irst one. re&erred to as 0"es' <esearch2. the authors analy1ed on the one hand the available literature on the phenomenon &rom *++1 to *++= and on the other the previous research that could provide use&ul in&ormation. second phase. re&erred to as ,Survey <esearch,. was based on a 5uestionnaire that. a&ter the identi&ication o& a representative sample o& the 4talian 4nternet population. was administered via telephone to a total o& 1>++ respondents. (inally. a third phase re&erred to as ,?ebsurvey <esearch, was based on a 5uestionnaire published on the website o& the 9niversity 0;a Sapien1a2 o& <ome$ this phase had the &inal outcome o& /@@ use&ul answers collected &rom the web. One o& the most interesting points in this research is probably the creation o& speci&ic categories o& users based on the behaviors they declared in the survey. <esearchers identi&ied &our main categories: the 0downloaders2 !those who said they downloaded music or movies &rom the 4nternet in the previous year#. which were in turn divided into 0downloaders pay2 !those who downloaded &rom sites or online paying a proper &ee# and 0downloaders &ree2 !those who obtained content &or &ree &rom other users#. On the other hand there were the 0non-downloaders2. which were in turn divided into ,aware non-downloaders, !who 'now how to download content &rom the 4nternet# and ,unaware non-downloader, !who are not aware o& this possibility#.
ALIPRANDI & MANGIATORDI, Content production and perception of copyright (EJLT, 2013)
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#$3$ T%e re1ort on "nno'at"on c!lt!re "n Ital* +4"re 5Cotec -..60
4n the spring o& *++A the 4talian edition o& ?ired maga1ine published a study containing some in&ographics ta'en &rom a *++A report titled ,%he culture o& innovation in 4taly,. written in collaboration with -otec &oundation. %he report is mainly &ocused on issues related to the concept o& innovation in a broader and more general sense !biotechnology. genetic engineering. energy and environmental policies. telecommunications. power supply# and reserves only a smaller amount o& space to the subject o& copyright. Bowever. the data provided in that part is particularly interesting. as it represents one o& the &irst cases in 4taly !along with the research by (onda1ione ;uigi 8inaudi# in which the research
ALIPRANDI & MANGIATORDI, Content production and perception of copyright (EJLT, 2013)
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ALIPRANDI & MANGIATORDI, Content production and perception of copyright (EJLT, 2013)
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-$ T%e researc%
4n this section. some bac'ground in&ormation will be provided about how the research was designed and conducted. %he dataset was collected through a sel&administered -omputer ssisted ?eb 4nterview !- ?4#. and the set o& 5uestions is still available online/.
included: 1= 5uestions about behaviours$ 1D 5uestions about opinions and perceptions$ > 5uestions about the level o& awareness about copyright-
to these 5uestions was &iltered on the basis o& the answers given to speci&ic 5uestions about use and production o& content. Section = included in-depth 5uestions about speci&ic online activities based on previous &ilter 5uestions. in order to group respondents in speci&ic sub-categories. as shown in the &ollowing chart:
/ http://copyrightsurvey.blogspot.it/p/the-5uestionnaire.html
ALIPRANDI & MANGIATORDI, Content production and perception of copyright (EJLT, 2013)
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%he 5uestionnaire was locali1ed in 4talian and 8nglish. 4t was accessible &or 1*+ days !&rom (ebruary 1st to )une 1st. *+11#. Eiven its target and content. the 5uestionnaire was promoted mostly over the 4nternet. press release was issued on (ebruary 1st. *+11 announcing the research project and the publication o& the 5uestionnaire. 4nitially this press release F both in 8nglish and in 4talian F was posted on several websites about digital activism and 4% topics. with a clear invitation to re-distribute it on any place and channel deemed appropriate. Mainstream social networ's such as (aceboo' and %witter also proved to be e&&ective distribution channels. (re5uent posting o& news items. events notices. status updates. and short messages F all including a direct lin' to the research description page F was complemented by additional promotion at con&erences and university lectures.
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3$ :et%o an res!lts
%he analysis per&ormed on the dataset &ollowed two steps: &irst. data &rom di&&erent variables was aggregated. operating a dimensional reduction o& the dataset itsel& by the means o& Principal -omponent nalysis. Second. the principal components were used to create newer variables and the sample was classi&ied by those variables. applying clustering analysis. %his allowed to de&ine tendencies in the way respondents agreed or disagreed with di&&erent 'ind o& assertions. ?e then compared the clusters with demographic data and with the original &our categories o& 0Eeneric2. 0 ctive2. 0-reative2 and 0Pro&essional creative2 users. in order to
D complete and detailed report !with more than =++ charts# is available online at http://copyrightsurvey.blogspot.it/p/complete-report.html.
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get crac!ed rom p2p get so tware rom internet rip a ter buying download damages companies download common beha"iour
%he eight &actors were then described and given a label. in order to use them to classi&y respondents in the &ollowing cluster analysis. Some o& them were 5uite predictable. while some showed interesting connections. P-1 - o2nloa ;cr"("nal: this &actor is composed by all the variables related to bad &eelings generated by the act o& illegally downloading digital content$ there is substantial coherence between opinions about illegal download !considering it as a crime is the variable with the highest loading here# and the idea that it should be regulated. or that copyright should be strongly en&orced$ P-* - 1a" ; o2nloa : whether it is &rom a speci&ic mar'et !e.g. i%unes# or &rom a website. people who declared to be used to buying online &rom o&&icial sources seemed to do it using multiple channels$ P-/ - 1-1; o2nloa : this &actor connects the use o& p*p networ's to the &act that many respondents already own a huge amount o& contents and sometimes they simply need that in order to be satis&ied$ this relationship suggests p*p use to be lin'ed to a sort o& 0collecting practice2. as people download content and accumulate it$ P-D - fr"en s: the two variables composing this &actor are easily associated by the &act that both are related to getting contents &rom &riends. uni&ying the aspects o& a real li&e sharing activity$ P-= - ba ;feel"n)s: also in this case the association was 5uite
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predictable. as the sense o& guilt and the &ear o& beeing prosecuted &or copyright violations pertain to the same domain o& 0having bad &eelings2 about something$ P-> - strea("n);1"rac*: streaming contents. be it &rom sites li'e Jou%ube or &rom less copyright compliant sources correlates with the download o& crac'ed so&tware$ those acts have a lower respect o& copyright in common$ P-: - ")"tal;s!11ort: a connection between so&tware download and the habit o& ripping content suggests that users have now the possibility o& choosing the best support &or the content they consume. and that material goods are being sent to the bac'ground as long as digital storage is more convenient$ P-@ - o2nloa ; a(a)e: this last &actor was probably the hardest to interpret. as it lin's the idea that download can damage companies with the belie& it is inacceptable. yet tolerated$ we interpreted it as an indicator o& the idea that damaging companies is not as bad as damagin authors. there&ore it can be tolerated.
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uncom ortable online#o line users consumers download$crime paid$download p2p$download riends bad$ eelings streaming$piracy digital$support download$damage 3%13 2%38 2.18 2.39 4%'' 2.72 3.38 3.64 2.11 1.83 3%2& 3%34 2.51 3%58 3%63 3%85
detached users 2%82 2.07 1.68 2.28 1.72 2.30 2.68 3.65
(our groups were hence individuated. which could be described as &ollows: 1. Unco(fortable !sers +-37 res1on ents0: they tend to thin' that downloading copyrighted content is a bad thing. and they &eel guilty &or it more than all the other groups. which is probably why they avoid it$ *. Onl"ne<offl"ne cons!(ers +7#= res1on ents0: they get content &rom various channels. including p*p and streaming. and they also tend to receive it &rom their networ's o& &riends$ /. Collectors +37= res1on ents0: they get content &rom any channel. also &rom the paid ones. and tend to strongly disagree with the idea that downloading is bad or criminal$ they also have the highest rate o& pre&erence &or digital supports$ they are someway complementary to the previous group$ D. Detac%e !sers +-=6 res1on ents0: they also condemn download as a criminal activity. and generally do not practice it$ as a result. they are those with the lowest guilt and &ear &eelings about such a behaviour. 4n order to better understand the nature o& the above described &our groups. an analysis o& their relationship with demographic variables was per&ormed.
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Gen er: male respondents were mainly classi&ied as collectors !/:.*H# or as onlineBoffline consu-ers !*>.@H#. 4n this last group there was high presence o& &emale respondents !D+H o& them#. ?omen had as a second most &re5uent outcome that o& detached users.
uncom ortable online#o line users consumers (ale )emale 18.3% 18.0% 26.8% 40.0% collectors 37.2% 13.3% detached users 17.7% 28.7% total 100.0% 100.0%
A)e )ro!1: younger respondents tended to &all into the onlineBoffline consu-ers category. with no substantial di&&erences between those under the age o& *= and those in the *=-/D range. lmost hal& o& older respondents !=DL years old# were classi&ied as detached users. %he two intermediate age groups !/=-DD and D==D# had similar distributions in both the unco-fortable and consu-ers groups. but had inverse distributions in the two categories o& collectors and detached users. gain. older respondents were more &re5uently classi&ied as detached.
uncom ortable users *25 25,34 35,44 45,54 5415.2% 17.6% 25.4% 22.4% 8.8% online#o line consumers 43%4+ 43%8+ 14.7% 14.7% 8.8% collectors 22.0% 26.7% 35%7+ 26.3% 33.3% detached users 19.4% 11.8% 24.2% 36%5+ 4&%1+ total 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Res1on ent cate)or"es: the original dataset included a classi&ication o& respondents based on speci&ic &iltering 5uestions. -omparing this top-down classi&ication with the bottom-up approach proposed in this paper it is possible to visuali1e some speci&ic correspondence patterns.
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uncom ortable online#o line users consumers .eneric user /cti"e user Creati"e user Pro essional creati"e user 18.68% 15.13% 19.39% 18.45% 31%&2+ 46%22+ 27.21% 23.81%
Eeneric users have a strong presence in both the consu-ers and detached groups. Summing up onlineBoffline consu-ers and collectors !two groups with very similar centroids. that could be seen as complementary# on one side. detached and unco-fortable users !again. groups with lots o& similarities# on the other. it is clear that generic users are almost per&ectly distributed between two &ronts: people who see download o& content as something negative. and people who donMt. strong majority o& ctive users &alls into the onlineBoffline consu-ers group. with a strong presence among the collectors. too. %he relative majority o& both 'inds o& creative users can be classi&ied as collectors. 4n both cases the second most li'ely group &or them is that o& onlineBoffline consu-ers. which di&&ers &or the 0&riends2 &actor.
D"sc!ss"on an Concl!s"ons
%he analysis per&ormed here allowed to build a bottom-up classi&ication o& the respondents o& a previous 5uestionnaire based on the analysis o& patterns in declared behaviour. %he pro&iling system o& the respondents already present in the dataset. reali1ed with &ilter 5uestions. was rediscussed in the light o& this new classi&ication. %he main &inding is that categories such as 0active2 or 0inactive2 only partially describe the positions that can be assumed by internet users towards copyright and download o& digital creative content.
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s already highlighted in the previous section. inactive users !those who only consume digital content. but do not upload content as a habit# split almost per&ectly among positive and negative views o& download. %he &act o& being active. on the contrary. seems to determine a shi&t towards a more &avorable view. 6eing creative. in the sense o& being producers o& original contents. seems related with the view that an internet user can &orm about copyright. 4nterestingly enough. the data shows an higher tendency towards the download o& digital content by creative users. (inally. there is no great di&&erence among 0creative2 and 0pro&essional creative2 users !the latter ones being those who gain money &rom their publishing content online#. %he &uture perspective is to use this pilot research to build a better designed survey &or monitoring the perception and attitudes o& users towards the issue o& copyright. in di&&erent countries and conte3ts. %he analysis carried out here will allow to redesign the original 5uestionnaire in a more e&&ective way. by reducing the number o& redundant 5uestions and by re&ining the classi&ication criteria o& respondents.
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B"bl"o)ra1%*
liprandi. S. !*+1*a#. Measuring the so called 0piracy2: a commented review o& the most important empirical studies. SC)entific @ESearch and )nfor-ation !echnology. &!1#. =AF@*. liprandi. S. !*+1*b#. -opyright. &rom criminalisation to normative e&&icacy. Ciberspa0io e diritto. (%!D=#. 1D:F1>>. liprandi. S. !*+1/#. -opyright in the digital era: a pilot on behaviours. social perception and consciousness. Journal of Library and )nfor-ation Science . #!*#. *+1/ 6S !*+11#. Eight annual +SA 8lobal Soft are 4iracy Study !pp. 1F1@#. <etrieved &rom http://globalstudy.bsa.org/*+1+/downloads/studyNpd&/*+1+N6S NPiracyNStu dy-Standard.pd& F last visited on Ath )uly *+1/ -ustomer 4nsight Eroup - 7ew Jor' %imes !*+11#. !he psichology of sharing: hy do people share onlineC !pp. 1FD>#. <etrieved &rom http://nytmar'eting.whsites.net/media'it/pos/POSNP96;4-+@1A.php F last visited on Ath )uly *+1/ (onda1ione ;uigi 8inaudi !*++:#. ) co-porta-enti di consu-o di contenuti digitali in )talia. )l caso del file sharing. !pp. 1F>@#. <etrieved &rom http://www.anica.it/online/attachments/+//N&ilesharingNreport.pd& visited on A )uly *+1/ 4S% %. !*+1+#. Cittadini e nuo,e tecnologie .anno &'('2 !pp. 1F*=#. <etrieved &rom http://www.istat.it/it/&iles/*+11/+1/testointegrale*+1+1**/*.pd&O
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