Ebook Pirates Are Relatively Old and Wealthy, Study Finds (torrentfreak.com)

A new study has found that people who illegally download ebooks are older and wealthier than most people's perception of the average pirate. From a report on TorrentFreak: Commissioned by anti-piracy company Digimarc, the study suggests that people aged between 30 and 44 years old with a household income of between $60k and $99k are most likely to grab a book without paying for it. [...] In previous studies, it has been younger downloaders that have grabbed much of the attention, and this one is no different. Digimarc reveals that 41 percent of all adult pirates are aged between 18 and 29 but perhaps surprisingly, 47 percent fall into the 30 to 44-year-old bracket. At this point, things tail off very quickly, as the remaining 13 percent are aged 45 or up.

Comments

age 30 is old and $60K is "wealthy"

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Welcome to the third world.

Re:age 30 is old and $60K is "wealthy"

[the_skywise]

I've somehow woken up in the universe of Logan's Run!

LastDay anyone? :)

Re:age 30 is old and $60K is "wealthy"

[CrimsonAvenger]

"-er"

Do note that "er" on the end. It's important. "Older" is NOT the same as "old". My youngest is older than my dog, for instance. And wealthier too. Of course, that's not saying much, since the dog has no money, and is only two...

Re:age 30 is old and $60K is "wealthy"

[fred6666]

The key word is "relatively". 30 to 44 is indeed older than we could have expected.

Also $60K puts you in the global 0.19% according to http://www.globalrichlist.com/
It's definitely rich on a world-wide scale, and no, you don't need to compare only the third world. Even in developed countries that must easily be in the top 20%.
But hey, it's easier to complain when you think you are poor.

Re:age 30 is old and $60K is "wealthy"

[nedlohs]

30-44 is also the age of the people who were in school (and just out of school) when file sharing took off in the mainstream (napster was 17 years ago...).

They would be the group I would expect to be the biggest "pirates" - they're the group who got the internet as a free download anything you want wild west. Younger people got the app store style pay a few dollars experience instead.

Of course, 14 years is far too big an age range given the domain is internet related it includes some before and after that time frame.

Sharing Paper

[Anonymous Coward]

Older people - of which I am one, are accustomed to being able to share books. Book clubs, used book stores, sharing your favorite new read with a friend is part of the culture. The notion that you pay once and can never share with someone - yet pay close to the same price as paper - is both insulting and greedy.

Re:Sharing Paper

[the_Bionic_lemming]

Yep, I was going to post that as well. I have a library of over 5000 paperbacks, It's fun introducing people to Remo Williams, or Tarl Cabot, Casca and many others :)

Re:Sharing Paper

[Registered Coward v2]

Yep, I was going to post that as well. I have a library of over 5000 paperbacks, It's fun introducing people to Remo Williams, or Tarl Cabot, Casca and many others :)

Interesting that the same argument made by the "younger" generation - we're used to sharing, is now being used by "those of a certain age" to explain theirs. From a cultural standpoint, it's interesting to see how a norm, in this case passing around books, translates to a similar behavior in the eWorld. That has ramifications for a whole lot of industries. For example, if the really younger generation gets used to using Uber vs buying a car what happens when they start raising families. Will tehy automagically start buying minivans or will Uber morph int a Parent Taxi service?

Re:Sharing Paper

[JaredOfEuropa]

Older people like me are also accustomed to being able to buy books, and not be hit with arbitrary regional restrictions. Imagine the lady at the checkout of your favourite book store or library putting aside a couple of books from your selection: "I am sorry sir, but you can't have those". That has been my main reason to pirate ebooks: region locks and availability. Thankfully the situation is improving, and publishers are learning not to piss off their customer this way.

Re:Sharing Paper

[taustin]

I guess you've never heard of Calibre and Apprentice Alf.

Re:30-44 is old?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Yeah, the reality is - the internet and World Wide Web are old enough now that some people who grew up with them are now in their 30s.

Re:No mystery here

[Altus]

DC Universe movies.

I certainly couldn't imagine paying to watch them.

When Ebooks are more expensive then pysical copies

[Anonymous Coward]

Its kind of OK if they are priced the same, but I will never ever buy a EBook that costs more than the physical copy.

The publisher needs to learn and set proper prices on EBooks.

TRIGGERED!

[Thud457]

kids these days don't read.

Also - reading correlates with "relatively wealthy"

Re:TRIGGERED!

[thinkwaitfast]

And he was right. The civilization that he was trying to protect no longer exists.

My neighbor's kid was telling me last night that they "don't do things like study apostrophes any more" in school, relating to a science presentation that he'd finished. He's in the 7th grade gifted program and didn't know many grammar rules of any kind.

Paid once already

[bensafrickingenius]

I know this doesn't make it right to anyone but me, but I've been torrenting audiobooks and ebooks left and right OF TITLES I'VE ALREADY PAID FOR AT LEAST ONCE BEFORE. I have a long commute now, hence the desire for audio rereads of old favorites. I also do ALL of my reading on my Kindle app now -- I feel no guilt about obtaining the content I paid for on paper in different formats. I know, I'm a monster, right?

Re:30-44 is old?

[mean pun]

I have no idea how old you are, but it does not matter. When you were young there were people complaining about the feckless youth of that day. Heck, archeologists have found clay tablets

with such rants.

I blame "whole word reading".

[tlambert]

I blame "whole word reading".

Pople who learned to read that way simply do not read for pleasure. They read when they are required to do so, but not otherwise.

If you are a "whole word reader", and you encounter a word you've never seen before, it's off to the dictionary to look up the new ideogram (since that how the words are taught using that method), even if you actually use the word daily when speaking.

I've occasionally wondered if we are going to have to make books available in "text speak", in the same way that we make them available in braille, in order to comply with the Americans With Disabilities act.

Take a look at the illustration.

[Gravis Zero]

Take a look at the chart the illustration, Maybe it's just me but it kinda looks like charts that reflect who has a computer and who is proficient with it.

Re:30-44 is old?

[Tim the Gecko]

If every generation is really 10% worse than the one before then we are just pond scum compared to Plato. And Plato's grandfather probably thought Plato could do a lot of things better.

You can't "illegally download ebooks"

[hackel]

Downloading eBooks (or anything else) isn't illegal. *Distributing* them is, without the proper permission/license. It's the person who is sharing who is at fault, not the receiver. Don't let the corporate IP police fool or scare you. I support every author who sells directly to consumers. I will not support giant publishing corporations who screw over authors as a routine order of business.

Support self-published authors, people!!

Re:No mystery here

[jwhyche]

That is the new form of copy protection. Just make it so bad that nobody would want to copy it.