During the lecture a lot of people agreed to buying their music or software legally, which made me think about how 'others' should be doing that too. Somehow, the trend towards legal downloading of content on the internet isn't quite there yet.
Just yesterday, someone I know owned up to having used torrents and being caught! And then there was another person who owned up to having downloaded an absolutely large amount of content from torrents, which any sort of guilt associated to it what-so-ever. Which brings me to a point made in the article regarding the "inverse relationship between age and the propensity to commit copyright offenses." Both of the persons that have been mentioned above are in their 20s. The one who was caught and seemed gulity for what he had done, is in his early 20s and the other one in his late 20s. However, unlike what the copyright industries might think, the older one wasn't exactly guilty concerning the offense.
This brings me to the second point made in the article, about the problematization of the youth. The article presents a view that the reason why the youth does not think it wrong to download content off the internet illegaly is because of the longwithstanding association of youth with 'crime' and 'delinquency.' This could sure be a reason, but looking at it from a simpler perspective, based on the survey results that the article shows, couldn't this be a result of the lack of disposable income? Just considering the 18 - 29 year olds, some of who might be university students or recent gradute, already have enough expenses to deal with than having to add another load on. It does seem much like a matter of common sense to say that not everyone in their youth has criminal and delinquint tendencies or even be dealing with emotional and psychological turmoil.
Yet, ironically, the targeting of a teenage market emerged from the 50s precisely because this group was seen as possessing substantial disposable income to spend on music, films etc. Though as you mention, its certainly not the case for many uni students!
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