Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/07/01/leechers_unloved/

Poll finds falling support for coyrightinfringers

Leechers unloved

By Andrew Orlowski

Posted in Legal, 1st July 2010 14:41 GMT

UK public sympathy for copyright leechers is falling, according to a new poll this week. This one's by Ipsos Mori, but it too provides evidence that pirates aren't exactly the most popular people in the pub. The earlier survey for lawyers Wiggin also showed support for creators' rights.

In the poll by Ipsos Mori, over half (52 per cent) the sample polled agreed with suspending persistent infringers. The number of people who agree with throttling (bandwidth of) repeat offenders was almost identical.

That's still a lot of people who don't immediately back the enforcement of online copyright, of course. But it shows that there's another side to the picture, one rarely seen on blogs and online discussion forums.

For all the increased “awareness” of “digital rights” (such as the right to get something for nothing), after the Digital Economy Act was much in the headlines this year, the trend is towards enforcing creators' rights.

We wondered here if that's why the Open Rights Group failed to influence the Digital Economy Act (whereas the much more poorly resourced photographers were successful). Perhaps this another sign of a backlash.

Several readers wondered if the poll, conducted for a large law practice whose clients include entertainment companies, was rigged. Maybe it was, and maybe Ipsos Mori too has succumbed to the the dark hand of the international copyright conspiracy (think SMERSH), meeting on secret yachts, and passing around huge sums of cash in brown paper bags.

Or maybe not, and these readers are simply rejecting evidence that doesn't fit the impression they've built up on blogs and message boards. The UK Pirate Party did poorly in the general election even in seats with a huge student population, and the Swedish Pirate Party's membership has halved.

Hat-tip to MusicAlly for the news. ®