New Study Indicates More Are Pirating DVDs

It seems that pirating is on the rise, and not the Carribbean kind. According to Variety, results of a new study were recently released which states that one in three Americans and British people are pirating DVDs. That figure is up from the Consumer Home Piracy Market Research study, conducted by FutureSource Consulting, from last year, which was one in four Americans and Brits had pirated discs.

There were 3,613 consumers in the U.S. and 1,718 in Blighty that participated in the study, and it seems that the pirating of TV DVDs has increased significantly in the U.K. Last year's study indicated that 42% of U.K. participants had pirated TV discs. This year 61% said they had done so.

New releases were favored in both the U.S. and U.K. with the U.K. consumers surveyed copying an average of 13 new releases and nine catalog titles over the past six months, while in the U.S. users were copying an average of 7.4 new titles and six library titles over the same period. The most popular source for copying was either rented or borrowed DVDs.

Survey participants were also asked if they would have purchased the discs, had they not been able to pirate them. 77% of U.S. respondants said they would have purchased all, some or at least a few discs and 63% of U.K. users responded likewise. The report's summary offered that those numbers are, "clearly indicating the scale of the lost revenues to the homevideo industry from home copying."