Independent academic study shows the effects of file-sharing to the film industry
(Weimar, 26 September 2004) Do any of these statements sound familiar to you? "I only download films to take a quick peek. Afterwards, I go to the cinema and watch them there, of course." Which leads to the conclusion: "File-sharing is not responsible for the losses the film industry has been suffering." Statements like these can be read on many file-sharing bulletin boards on the World Wide Web. But now, a scientific study conducted at the University of Weimar disproves these statements. For the first time, it was possible to demonstrate that the majority of movie thieves never or only very seldom watched legally the films they had already consumed illegally. 

The study conducted at the University of Weimar proves for the first time the correlation between illegal downloading of films and legal viewing of films. In an online survey conducted between May and August 2004, a total of 837 users from seven different file-sharing sites were questioned. "The objective of the study was to find out among other things what motivates file-sharers and what consequences the practice of downloading films has for the industry,” explained Victor Henning, author of the study.

Download = No subsequent legal consumption of the film. This formula is applicable to at least the majority of respondents. While 56% of those surveyed never or hardly ever visit the cinema, this effect is even more pronounced when it comes to the sale and rental of DVDs: Here, 67% (DVD rental) and 63% (DVD sales) of respondents said they would subsequently never or seldom buy or rent the film on DVD.

Particularly alarming is the effect of illegal consumption of films among the group of non-downloaders, that is to say, those who don’t actually perform the illegal download, but so avail themselves of bootleg copies. Of this group, 74% said they “rarely” or “never” bought or rented films after viewing a bootleg copy.

Motivation of movie thieves
In the survey, the primary motivation for movie thieves became very clear: the participants in the study download films because it is free. More than two thirds of users, 73% altogether, ranked this factor as “important" or "very important". The respondents also said DVDs were too expensive (63%), as was a visit to a cinema (50%).

But it’s easy to disprove these assertions. In Germany a cinema ticket costs on average 5.81 euros – just 31 cents more expensive than in 1998. The situation for DVDs is similar. According to figures calculated by the Federal Association of Audio-Visual Media (Bundesverband audiovisuelle Medien, BVV), the average price for all films available on the German marketplace is still just 14.13 euros.

Unlike other studies or recommendations, Victor Henning’s analysis disproves the assertion that moral scruples might curtail the demand for illegally downloaded and recorded films. No more than 17% of film downloaders said moral considerations would potentially deter them from doing so.

“The figures in the Weimar study encourage us to continue and intensify the fight against illegal consumption of films,” commented Dr. Elke Esser, managing director of the Zukunft Kino Marketing GmbH, in response to the study. “Therefore, we plan to continue our ‘Movie thieves are Criminals’ campaign to increase awareness in public institutions such as schools that copyright theft is a punishable crime, and of course we will continue to pursue criminal and civil cases against movie thieves.” After all, ultimately the film industry is fighting for the very thing that movie thieves claim is important to them: 85.4% of those surveyed agreed with the statement: “Films are very important to me.”