OfCom study claims piracy isn’t a big deal

British broadcasting watchdog, OfCom, has conducted a study of piracy and online activity without interference from the media industry or its lobby groups and has found that piracy isn't perpetrated by large numbers of people and should be of little concern to the government or content producing companies.

The research polled over 21,000 people during 2012, discussing what their online habits were. Ultimately it turned out that just under 60 per cent accessed music, movies and TV content online, but only 17 per cent did so illegally. Of those that did view pirated content however, tended to spend almost twice as much on legal content per month than non-pirates: £26 per month as opposed to £16.

Many of these pirates said their reason for doing so, was because they already spent enough on content but some also suggested that the industry they were pirating from makes huge amounts of money anyway.

On top of these results, OfCom also saw a slow reduction in piracy from web users throughout the year, suggesting that improvements in legal online streaming options and better access to content made watching programs and listening to music legally, far easier to do.

But of course the government isn't taking this study into consideration. As Wired points out, David Cameron has recently taken on Mike Weatherly, MP and former member of the Motion Picture Licensing Company, who's set to outline anti-piracy efforts for the prime minister.

KitGuru Says: Does anyone else think it's ridiculous that a prime minster has concern over people watching pirated movies? Is that really something that the leader of a country should be worrying about? 

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