The UK newspaper Independent published a study claiming that people who download music illegally also buy more music legally, namely an average of £77 a year on music and that is £33 more than those who claim that they never illegaly download music. Still according to the poll 1 in 10 people download music illegally, that is the number of people actually admitting it.
As Mashable correctly points out, the problem of this study is that Internet users were simply asked whether they download content illegally or not. It’s obvious that lots did not want to admit they actually downloaded illegally as well. This makes the whole result of the poll incorrect and it is almost close to impossible drawing correct conclusions.
Note that the UK plans a “three strikes and you’re out” rule set to become law in April 2010. This new rule would disconnect copyright infringers from the Internet.
