The true extent of the use of pirated content has become clear: what illegal content do Lithuanians use the most? | Culture

Such trends were revealed by the results of the first representative survey of the level of consumption of illegal content by the Lithuanian population, presented on Thursday on the order of the Ministry of Culture.

During the research, Lithuanian residents aged 14-64 were interviewed, separately distinguishing 14-29 year olds. the results of the respondents, in order to analyze in more detail the trends and reasons for the consumption of illegal content in this age group.

The aim of the study was to find out: Lithuanian residents’ consumption habits of legal and illegal content; the reason for the choice; ways of accessing and using illegal content; attitudes and beliefs of the population about the consumption of illegal content; communication about the use of illegal content in the family and awareness of preventive information against the use of illegal content in the social space.

The results showed that 4 out of 10 Lithuanian residents use illegal content at least sometimes, and 26% do it regularly. population. Illegal audiovisual content (films, series, television shows, videos) (33%) and music works (26%) are used most often.

It is also important that about a quarter of the population indicated that they could not easily distinguish between sources of legal and illegal content. In addition, when answering the question about the consumption of legal and illegal sources in different content categories, 13-28 percent users chose the “hard to say” option. Therefore, the real level of consumption from illegal sources may be higher.

According to the research methodology, when assessing the acceptability of actions with illegal content, 48 percent residents consider at least one method of illegal access to online content or its dissemination to be acceptable.

The most common reasons cited by respondents for consuming illegal content are related to the price of the content and greater availability of content from illegal sources.

More than half of the population has heard about illegal content in public space or in their social environment. A sixth of 14-19-year-olds remember being exposed to information about illegal content at their educational institutions. These results show that the problem of using illegal content is discussed only by a part of educational institutions. Since some individuals indicated that they talked about illegal content in their environment, it can be assumed that some of the public has an ambivalent view of illegal content, which opens up opportunities for further discussion in order to achieve positive changes and greater respect for copyright.

When assessing the discussion of illegal content in a personal environment, it should be noted that 4 out of 10 parents have discussed the issue of illegal content with their children, and a quarter do not know whether their minor children using the Internet use illegal content. It has been observed that behavior towards illegal content and attitudes in the family usually coincide – if parents use illegal content, their children tend to choose it as well, and the parents of children who do not use illegal content are more likely to disapprove of the use of such content.

According to the survey, before choosing illegal content, residents would be most encouraged to think about (dissuade) the possible negative consequences – the risk of leaking personal data, damaging the computer, receiving a fine. Even small fines would encourage a large proportion of people to abandon illegal content (only a tenth of respondents indicated that no fine would encourage them).

Evaluating the forecasts of the use of illegal content and changes in attitudes, this year the overall level of piracy in Lithuania is slightly lower, compared to the results of the pilot study conducted in 2023. This coincides with the optimistic scenario, according to which the average piracy index should decrease, while the population’s awareness and intolerance of consumption of illegal content should increase.

window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
FB.init({
appId: ‘117218911630016’,
version: ‘v2.10’,
status: true,
cookie: false,
xfbml: true
});
};

(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) {
return;
}
js = d.createElement(s);
js.id = id;
js.src = “https://connect.facebook.net/lt_LT/sdk.js”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));