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.

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

[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: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.