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Almost half of French consumers have pirated

01.01.70 | Katie Allen

Almost half of French consumers have illegally downloaded cultural products, according to French online anti-piracy agency Hadopi.

Analysing consumer habits in this area for the first time, the agency found that at least 49% of French people have illegally downloaded cultural products from the internet at least once.

Hadopi also discovered that 13% had done so regularly and 36% 'occasionally or exceptionally'. Most of them were men aged 15 to 39 years old, who were evenly spread over socio-professional categories and geographic locations.
 
By product, figures showed that 57% of illegal users in the year preceding the survey downloaded music, followed by 48% for film and 44% for photos.

Books ranked fourth with 29%. They were the only listed category in which legal downloads outpaced illegal, even though these were ahead by only one percentage point at 30%.
 
An average of 30% of all respondents procuring cultural products online during the previous 12 months opted for books. Of them, 27% were men and 32% women, 23% were aged 15-24, 36% 25-39 and 29% were over 40. Paris and the
surrounding  region accounted for 32% of the total.
 
Among respondents, 37% said price was the major obstacle to buying legal offerings, followed by a lack of choice for 21%, and habit by 13%. Hadopi's findings, which were reported this week, were based on a sample of 2,687
people. The survey was carried out between 25th October and 4th November last year.
 
Hadopi, or the Haute autorité pour la Diffusion et la Protection des Oeuvres sur Internet, was created in 2009 by an eponymous law to crack down on piracy of copyrighted content.
  

• Barbara Casassus
• digital
• France
• piracy