A new study from the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg takes a look at consumer attitudes towards the copying of CDs and DVDs, finding that the majority of those surveyed consider it to be legal. The poll was taken among young people ages 12-24 and shows that many believe they are not doing anything wrong by copying CDs for their friends.
Looking at teenagers between 12-17 years-old, 69 percent believed copying a CD from a friend who had originally bought the album was legal. However, only 21 percent thought it was legal to do so if the friend originally had the CD for free. Those surveyed had similar attitudes about movies as well..
The RIAA now considers the copying of albums among friends, dubbed “schoolyard piracy,” a greater problem than online P2P sharing. “We’ve made substantial progress educating people that downloading copyrighted music for free is illegal,” RIAA Chairman Mitch Bainwol told the Times. “But we still confront a significant challenge educating kids that copying a CD for a friend is also a crime. This is a major focus for the entire industry.”
