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a2f2a ‘consensus’ straw poll: results

// January 28th, 2010 // p2p

p2pnet view Music | P2P:- Half-way through the month I asked you for help by completing an extended poll run by David Lessard on a2f2a.com . “If you’re reading this, it’s a pretty sure bet you’re among those who believe musicians should be paid for their work, and fans actively want to help make that happen,” I said, because with the UK as the focal point … … “Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, NBC Universal and Sony Pictures are at the end of the line, betting everything they have they can regain control of ‘consumers’ through ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.” If it’s ever formulated as law around the world,  “every man, woman and child on the planet will in one stroke lose their freedom of speech to fall under the thrall of companies and politicians who answer only to one small feral group,  corporate shareholders,” I said here . On top of that, musicians will continue to be totally dominated by the corporate music industry, as they’ve been for decades. At the moment, all the running is being made by the cartels and musicians who side with them. But for the first time in history, thanks to the net, the people now have a voice and we want to get them into the discussion. Now it’s time to show the entertainment cartels, and their bought-and-paid-for politicians, we, and not they, are in charge. A consensus statement is vital and data from across the board is needed to create it. Now the results are in and surprisingly, more than half of the people who responded are professional musicians. [JN] __________________________________________ “Thanks to everyone who participated in the poll,” says David, going on > > > We had 176 total responses and 500+ views. Before I present the results, I wanted to discuss the poll itself a little bit to assuage some concerns that commenters had. I’m not a professional survey writer. Before some of the comments, I didn’t even know what a push poll was (it’s a poll meant to change opinion, e.g. “What would you think if unfavored Politician X was really an alien?”). This poll wasn’t meant to sway opinion, just to see where people stand at the moment; it’s a straw poll to get a general assessment for people’s opinions. That being said, many of the statements were deliberately one-sided and opinionated, but that is because almost all of the statements were taken from actual discussion threads on a2f2a.com. They were the opinions (or not) of the respective authors and nothing more. In these discussion threads, most of the opinions and ideas were on one side of issues and were represented more often. They were taken word-for-word from other authors, so word choice in the statements reflected their word choice. Because of the way the poll was set up, a respondent could click to agree with a statement or pass it by. While both sides of an issue were not explicated equitably, passing by a statement and not supporting it can be thought of as representing “the other side.” I’m taking suggestions for the next version of the survey, so if you want a statement represented, feel free to leave it in the comments. Some people commented that they were unfamiliar with some of the terminology used (e.g. ACTA, Three Strikes). Wikipedia and p2pnet are great resources to find out more about these issues. This poll is not statistically valid. I will make no claims as to statistical validity and will make my conclusions very carefully. The results are presented below in two versions. The abridged version has a list of all the questions, the number of positive responses, the total responses for that question, and the positive responses/ total responses for a rough percentage agreement with each statement. The full version has all of the comments and each individual response (randomized order). Fair warning, the full version is somewhat messy and difficult to read. Abridged Full I will be providing some limited comments on interesting results. There’s a lot of data here, so pick it apart in the comments. For those who just want the results and don’t want to wade through the thick of it, here is a list of the questions with percent agreement for each. % agreement was calculated by taking the number of positive respondents and dividing it by the total number of respondents. It gives us an estimate of what proportion of respondents agreed with a statement. My commentary follows below. Question text % agreement Are you a professional musician? 54.3% If yes, is that how you make your living? If not, what else do you do? See full results If you are a professional musician, do you belong to a professional body? 59.4% of musicians If so, what? See full results Do you belong to or use any commercial download site such as iTunes? 58.5 If so, which one(s)? See full results How much would you estimate you spend on downloads per week, month, year? Range $0-$1000/year What would you estimate is the total amount you’ve spent on downloads? Range $0 to thousands Do you belong to or use a non-commercial music download site? 30 If so, which one(s)? See full results Do you share music online? 36.8 If so, for how long have you been doing so? Range 2-15+years How old are you? M=40.7 What sex are you? 88% male What is your income level? See full results Are you a student? 14.5 If so, what are you studying? See full results Do you have a college degree? 67.3 Are you employed? 75.6 If so, in what capacity? See full results Where do you live? See full results Are you married? 52 Do you have children? 41.9 If you have children, what are their ages? See full results If you have children, do you know if they share music online? *EDIT for clarification* This question is for people who have children. Do you your children share music online? 28.6 If you have children and you know they share music online, do you approve/disapprove? *EDIT for clarification* This question is for people who have children and who know their children share music online. Do you approve or disapprove of your children sharing music online? 31% approve, 41% disapprove, 27% don’t care File-sharing should remain illegal, though copyright might need some reform and more appropriate enforcement to address it. 28.4 File-sharing should be permitted, so it would be best to compensate publishers from an Internet tax (aka compulsory license fee). 18.8 P2P in every form will exist forever. There is no available power to stop or control this phenomenon. I agree that any legislation that tries to forbid this inevitable cultural exchange is technically impossible and likewise ridiculous. 57.4 Individuals who file-share for no gain or profit should not be persecuted 59.1 Decentralised P2P (with or without specific software applications) by private individuals where no money is made, should be entirely exempt [from persecution], and not divided into downloader/uploader distinction. 47.7 Decentralised P2P (with or without specific software applications) by ANYONE where no money is made, should be entirely exempt [from persecution], and not divided into downloader/uploader distinction 32.4 File-sharing should be permitted without reservation. 20.5 File-sharing should not be permitted in any form. It is illegal and should remain illegal. 10.8 I think that file-sharing should remain illegal for COMMERCIAL infringements, with a distinction made for amateur/private uses (i.e. differentiate between for-profit sharing versus fans sharing) 47.2 One shared copy DOES NOT equate to one lost sale. 63.6 If file-sharers don’t stop after several warnings (3-strikes), they should be kicked off the internet. 19.3 Monopolies such as copyright shouldn’t apply to the Internet, nor should a tax – a free market will be fine. Sharing and building upon published music is natural. 29.5 If music has an opportunity to be free and liberated whereby fans could be able to use and consume music to their hearts extent yet provide a means of compensation to the artists/ songwriters and even ’shareholders’ with minimal or nearly no economic effect upon ‘fans’ I would support such a scenario. 47.7 I support an internet tax for all users that would be used to compensate rights holders for illegal downloads. 18.2 I do not support an “internet tax” to compensate for file-sharing under any circumstances. 43.8 I could support an internet tax to compensate rights holders IF it meant file-sharers were otherwise no longer persecuted or prosecuted. 25.0 A completely ‘free market’ scenario is more than likely unachievable in the face of the current legislation being proposed, not to mention super-powered economic forces within various media-oriented industries. Although sharing and building upon artistic works may be considered natural, I agree that we live on planet earth where laws and regulations set precedence. 14.2 I agree that perhaps the only way to influence laws [pertaining to copyright and file-sharing] would be to form a solid consensus and work to create a persuasive counter-proposal to the likes of ACTA and 3-strikes. 30.1 I agree to an assertive position from [the file-sharing/music fan community] against legislation that is currently being imposed which supports the squandering of tax-payers money in order to enforce an impossible control-driven agenda (e.g. 3-strikes, digital Britain?). 40.3 Net neutrality must be defended and maintained for the benefit of all 55.7 Corporate interference can only be addressed by activities like Net Neutrality legislation, enforcement of Fair Competition and Fair Consumer Practices, and massive public exposure to the corporate deception that brought it all on. 35.8 I support a Three Strikes policy/law. 19.3 I DENOUNCE a Three Strikes policy/law. 48.9 I support the ACTA. 10.8 I DENOUNCE the ACTA. 43.8 I denounce the secrecy behind the ACTA. 55.1 Secrecy is necessary for the ACTA, like any other international agreement. 2.3 Artists need to be paid by the people who enjoy and exploit their work. 50.6 Artists SHOULD be paid by the people who enjoy and exploit their work. 63.6 If anyone’s going to get paid for singing my song then they should either be prosecuted or forced to pay me a royalty. 27.3 Some form of compensation should go the person that created the piece of work, but not some person that their child sold the rights too. 33.5 Artists need to be paid, and fans want to pay them. 57.9 I would prefer to pay an artist directly rather than through a record label or middleman. 69.9 A “use it or lose it” limitation should apply to royalties. 17.0 Artists need to find revenue sources other than selling music files/CDs. File-sharing is here to stay and selling music files is on the way out. 40.3 Granting a limited commercial monopoly, (Internet or not), may be a valid trade-off for us to make as a society, and can encourage the production of more creative work than would otherwise be the case, to be shared freely and developed further within a reasonable time (i.e. less than a generation, certainly not 100+ years as at present). 22.7 I support copyright in its current incarnation. 26.1 I DENOUNCE copyright in any incarnation. 13.7 I could support copyright, but with changes for the current economic, cultural, and technological situation. 43.8 I could support copyright, but the length needs to be shortened. 33.5 A “use it or lose it” limitation should apply to copyright. 18.8 Copyright law does NOT work anymore. It was never designed to work with the world we live in today. It needs a serious overhaul. I also am extremely angered when I see some single parent being sued millions for downloading a few songs, when someone could go into a record store and steal a couple of CDs and get nothing but a fine. 43.8 One shared copy DOES NOT equate to one lost sale. 58.5 Copyright is dead, the rights holders should just give up. 13.1 There should be explicit exceptions in copyright law for fair use. 45.5 Copyright should not be transferrable to anyone except for the creator of the work. 38.6 More than half of the respondents were professional musicians. Any consideration of the results must take this unusual representation into account. Mean age was 40 years old. Most respondents were male. Of respondents who admitted to sharing music online, the mode was 10 years. People who share music have been doing it for a long time. Half of the respondents were married. Less than 20% of respondents were in favor of an Internet tax to compensate publishers. Close to 45% of respondents were against an Internet tax under any circumstances, but 25% would be okay with one if it meant an end to file-sharing persecution and prosecution. Almost 60% of respondents agreed that individuals who file-shared for no profit should not be prosecuted. Only 10% were in favor of outlawing any form of file-sharing. Less than 20% of respondents were in favor of kicking file-sharers off the Internet after “three strikes.” 30% of respondents were in favor of forming a consensus and counter-proposal to legislation like the ACTA and Three Strikes. Only 56% of respondents were in favor of maintaining net neutrality. About 20% of respondents were in favor of Three Strikes, with about 20% against. About 11% of respondents were in favor the ACTA while 44% were against it. 55% were against the secrecy behind it. 2% supported the secrecy. 70% of respondents would prefer to pay an artist directly rather than through a middle-man. Only 26% of respondents supported copyright in its current incarnation, and only ~14% were against it in any incarnation. 44% could support copyright with changes, and 34% thought the length should be shortened. About 60% of respondents agreed that one shared copy does not equate to one lost sale. Less than half of respondents thought there should be exceptions in copyright law for fair use. About 40% of respondents thought copyright should not be transferable to anyone other than the creator of the work. I’ll leave the discussion and debate up to you in the comments. Thanks for reading this far, I know it’s a lot. Thanks for all your effort, David. - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi January, 2010 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -