Month: September 2020

Wenn man noch einmal von vorne anfangen könnte, dann wäre das schon manchmal etwas. Facebook macht das irgendwie gerade

Das bestätigt Microsoft selbst. Es steht ein weiteres Unternehmen im Rennen: Oracle. Der Deal sieht aber weniger Einschränkungen vor. (Microsoft, Oracle)

Super Mario Bros. wird 35 Jahre alt! Golem.de hat den Klassiker im Original erneut gespielt - und nicht nur Lob für ihn. Von Benedikt Plass-Fleßenkämper (Super Mario, Nintendo)

Während die Sicherheitsbehörden im Untersuchungsausschuss des Bundestags behaupten, das Attentat sei aufgeklärt, müssen sie tatsächlich vielen neuen Hinweisen nachgehen

Die Marke bleibt bestehen und das bisherige Geschäftsmodell von ARM will Nvidia fortführen. (ARM, Prozessor)

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Four years after buying Arm Holdings for $32 billion, Softbank is selling Arm to NVIDIA for $40 billion. It’s the most expensive deal in the semiconductor space to date, and it would put NVIDIA in control of the technology that powers most of the world’s smartphones and a growing number of other devices. Qualcomm, Samsung, […]

The post NVIDIA is buying Arm for $40 billion appeared first on Liliputing.

Es wird viel über den Kapitalismus gemeckert. Aber dessen wichtigste Akteure, die Kapitalisten, bleiben weitgehend unsichtbar. Das gilt auch für den gegenwärtig größten dieser Kapitalisten: BlackRock

Geheimdienst-Experte Erich Schmidt-Eenboom im ausführlichen Interview über seine Sicht des Falls Nawalny - und die Niederlagen und Erfolge der CIA, des FSB, des BND und des Mossad

Two decades ago, piracy was booming at university campuses where high-speed Internet access was readily available.

This threat was quickly recognized by copyright holders, who swiftly took action in response.

The RIAA and MPAA, for example, helped to lobby in favor of more strict legislation including the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA). This law requires institutions to issue an annual anti-piracy warning to all students and to create a policy to “effectively combat” infringement.

Despite these measures, piracy hasn’t disappeared from campuses completely. A new paper published by researchers from Texas Christian University and the University of North Texas shows that it remains a common pastime.

Piracy Habits Among Private and Public University Students

The researchers conducted a survey among public and private university students and specifically focused on the legal and illegal consumption of movies online. This allowed them to see how common piracy is and if there are any differences between private and public universities.

Generally speaking, private university students are believed to have more money at their disposal. As such, they should be less likely to pirate, assuming that cost is a critical factor.

“The logic is that students who have more disposable income who come from a more affluent family and can attend an expensive private university should easily be able to legally stream or buy movies,” the researchers write.

“Conversely, students who come from a lower SES background would be assumed to have less disposable income and therefore piracy would be a good ‘free’ alternative,” they add.

A Counterintuitive Finding

However, the researchers found the exact opposite. While the data indeed show that students in private universities are tied to wealthier families, they also pirate more. In some cases, twice as much.

“This study finds that students sampled from the expensive private university pirated significantly more than from the public university, even when considering different factors,” the paper reads.

A quick glance at the statistics indeed shows a clear difference. Among the private university students, more than 40% admits to downloading movies from unauthorized sources. For students from public universities, this was just 19%.

Similar differences are also observed for streaming movies from unauthorized sources (48% vs. 28%). For movies downloaded through peer-to-peer networks, the difference is smaller (18% vs. 14%) but that question only covered movies that were not yet available for purchase.

The paper doesn’t give any overall piracy statistics, but it shows that piracy remains prevalent, particularly among private university students. The same students who tend to be wealthier and on average have a higher socioeconomic background.

What About Paid Streaming Services?

That cost is not a crucial factor becomes clear from the fact that students at the private university also have more access to paid streaming services. More than 94% have access to Netflix, and roughly a third have access to HBO, Amazon Prime, and Hulu.

At public schools, fewer students have access to these paid streaming services. However, they are more frequent YouTube users, which is free.

The research also found the known gender effect. That is, men are more likely to pirate than women. However, the differences between private and public university students remain intact. In fact, female students at the private university downloaded more than men at the private one.

Legal Options Help to Curb Piracy

Finally, while piracy remains common at universities, there’s also some positive news for copyright holders. As it turns out, legal viewing options do help to lower the piracy rates.

“Nearly half of respondents indicated they have to some degree stopped pirating movies due to the availability of inexpensive streaming services compared to only approximately 17% who was relatively not affected.”

It’s worth noting that the data come from two universities, so the results should not be generalized to the entire population without caution.

The survey data also can’t explain the difference in piracy habits, which is something follow up research may be able to delve into. However, it does confirm that piracy is more complex than most people assume. It’s certainly not just about money.

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The paper titled: “A comparison of a public and private university of the effects of low-cost streaming services and income on movie piracy” is available here

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.