Research report 2019 - Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition
The use of copyright protected creative online content by German consumers
Authors
Stürz, Roland A.; Suyer, Alexander; Harhoff, Dietmar; Hilty, Reto M.
Departments
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research; Immaterialgüter- und Wettbewerbsrecht
Summary
How copyright-protected content is used on the Internet and, particularly, which conclusions should be drawn from users’ behavior has been the subject of intense debate for years. To what extent do Internet users download, stream or share content? What is the share of paid compared to free use? Do users consider their own conduct to be legal, and what are their motives for choosing potentially illegal forms of use? The Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition examines these issues gathering data with a large-scale, representative quantitative survey of German consumers.