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9/9/2017
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UNIT 8: RESEARCH REPORT
EXUCUTIVE SUMMARY
The 1st website intended for file sharing utilized Peer-to-peer or perhaps P2P peer to
peer which allowed an user’s whole music library open to other customer for download.
Users could actually search and download music in huge amounts very quickly. Bit
Bittorrent technology arrived immediately after the P2P file sharing which is an open up
source document sharing software which allowed users to split up the file they want on
a distributed network and down load it in some parts from a number of different users.
Little bit Torrent application downloads a bit of the document from various users whilst
P2P downloading file coming from an individual end user.
Music document sharing can be the largest matter for copyright owners. It is called by
them a way of serving in copyright infringement. Many law suits have been submitted by
copyright laws owners and the representatives looking to turn off websites that use P2P
and other document sharing computer software.
Copyright owners recognized that downloadable free music demand is not going to
disappear easily. Consequently music market representatives and copyright owners
have created music download solutions or loading services recharging small charges or
some kind of correct safety program to avoid infraction. A few of these ongoing services
are shown to be popular.
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1.1 Formulate and record possible research project outline specifications
Introduction
P2P usage is mostly against the law because sharing of copyrighted files without
permission from the copyright owner is involve. Uploading music from the CD
that is owned and allowing other people to download music from your website
without express permission from the owners of the copyright are all violations of
copyright law. Downloading copyrighted music is illegal. Today many people in
UK use illegal downloading off the internet as an alternative to purchasing CDs or
DVDs of movies. There are consequences who practice the illegal downloads. .
Quantitative Research
Qualitative Research
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Qualitative research is also known as field research which usually involves
fieldwork. Researcher observes and records events and behavior in their natural
environment. Researcher visit people to observe the subject as it naturally or
normally behaves. They concentrate on participants, experiences and perception
and what way things makes sense in their lives. Methods of Data Collection are
Primary Research
The research involves gathering data though going out and collecting
information yourself by surveys, interviews, ethnographic research.
(owl.english.purdue.edu)
Secondary Research
Secondary data collection is the process which involves collecting data from
the journals, books, articles. Secondary research is the most common
method used, it is basically accessing information which already been
collected and published. (knowthis.com)
1.2 Identify the factors that contribute to the process of Research project
selection
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There are many factors that needed to be considered after the proposal has
been received Project selection is a process to evaluate each idea of the project
and choose the highest priority project. At this stage projects are just
suggestions, therefore its selection is based on project brief description.
1. Variables are measurable factors that can presume more than one value. The
three types of variables are characterized: dependent, extraneous and
independent variables
2. The different types of measurement scale are: interval scale, nominal scale,
ordinal scale, ratio scale are used to classify variables.
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3. Hypothesis is an uncertain statement of the outcome of a research which points
the relationship between two or more variables waiting to be verified. Hypothesis
allows the researcher to add the theory formulation if proved to be true. The
alternate hypothesis and the hypothesis of the researcher are the most important
factors when doing or analyzing research.
1.3 Undertake a critical review of key references for the Research project
The introduction of the internet and the related digital music distribution formats
has imposed a direct threat to channel of distribution which was controlled by the
big four before. The four major music firms directly supports these legislative
bodies and claim to represent the copyright owner’s interest. All of these firms
have decided to combat illegal music downloads (or, piracy)
All of these firms are hailing national and international courts to pass harder laws
on copyright or appeal Internet Service Providers (ISP) to block those sites who
allow illegal downloads. The aim of this review is to draw attention to the DMR
and give some ideas on piracy-related data. I hold the view that the present
stress on digital piracy was built on many liable events that resulted in the decline
of the industry. I have discussed some of these important events, present a
review on piracy and related concepts.
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Before Napster in 1999 consumer were restricted to purchase an entire album
that has their favorite song. With digital technology, single track can be
downloaded from a digital album. For a consumer it means there is no more
restriction to pay full price for an entire album if they only want one song. I
believe that this behavioral change has disentangled the fundamental attitude of
the industry revenue structure. Consumers have re directed their spending
towards a lower price single track. According to Recording Industry Association
of America 2008 Report ‘If digital singles are converted into an album equivalent
and added to both CDs and digital albums there is still a decline of 14% in an
overall album unit (RIAA 2008). In 2007 83% of sales for the music recording
industry came in the full length CD form. US digital formats contains 52% of
sales at the end of 2010 which is why industry profit margins and revenues are
lower than previous levels.
IFPI and its correspondence have petitioned ISPs and also national and
international governing bodies to pass tougher laws and bring legal action
against file-sharing sites to secure intellectual property rights. They have
succeeded in closing many file-sharing sites. However, the recent trends reveal
the fact that consumer patterns of spending has shifted to digital systems from
physical CD.
Digital Piracy
Tshmuck (2010) stated in his literature review of studies related issues of piracy
and its impact on the sales of music industry ‘Some authors speak of ‘piracy’,
where others use terms such as ‘file sharing’, downloading and unauthorized
copying’ “free music consumption”, etc” Tshmuck reasons that use of terms
carelessly may explain some of the extreme differences in the various studies
results. He investigated that the lack of consent on the methods of research in
exploring the industry problem. To my understanding Piracy is ‘the internet users
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percentage who are engaged in unauthorized download activity of copyrighted
material without any willingness to pay’.
British Recording Industry (BPI) has reported that total units that were
downloaded were 1.2 billion in 2010, which cost the industry loss revenue of
£984m (Frontier-Economics 2011). In my point of view the figure assumes that
every downloaded track is piracy and it disregards the sampling effect
completely. The revenue lost appears to be unrealistic. I think some freeloaders
may be converted to legal consumers in the P2P absence and the category that
are not willing to pay anyways are overlooked. I think that those users who are
not willing to pay for music will not become active music buyers. The value of
free is tempting and attractive that is why an incentive can be served for some to
engage in file-sharing activity and gain some benefit that are given out in
portions. IFPI claims that 95% of all music downloads are illegal, a number
equals to 40 billion units worldwide (IFPI2010). My question is how was this
number determined, there are no published report produced by IFPI, Jupiter or
NPD Group which provided any detailed calculations to demonstrate how this
estimate is determined. All these doubts lead me to say that the data lack
transparency. Some journalists like have severely criticized the statistic.
Conclusion
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I share Tshumuck’s (2010) view that IFPI may be point in the wrong direction in
stressing on assigning lot of the industry decline on file sharing rather than
society which is embedded in a digitization age at the global level, and
consumers discovery of music and pattern of spending. Consumers are
constantly looking for other kinds of entertainment. Advancement in DVD and
game technology has enabled this area to give improved cooperative experience
. Live performances are also on the rise and artists are actively reaching other
ways of revenues to cover declining recording income.
1.5 Provide an appropriate plan and procedures for the agreed research
specification
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Data Entry 15/7/17 18 8/8/17
Data Analysis 11/8/17 4 14/8/17
Write Report 14/8/17 12 1/9/17
Distribute Draft 3/9/17 1 4/9/17
Report
Solicit comments 5/9/17 4 10/9/17
Finalise report 10/9/17 5 17/9/17
Distribute to 18/9/17 1 18/9/17
Board
Board meeting 26/9/17 1 26/9/17
The British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) stated that ‘illegal downloading was
becoming a “parasite”. According to BPI research on internet users habits
reports that “more than three quarters of music downloaded in the UK is illegally
attained without any payment to the song writers, music companies and
musicians who produce it. On the positive note BPI also reported early this year
that legal downloads had seen rise in sales by £154 million which is more than
50% compared to 2008 which was £101.5 million. (bbc.co.uk)
Illegal downloading in the UK have increased despite the blocking popular file
sharing sites by ISPs. However more people are paying for online music, movies
and TV shows.
Courts have compelled UK’s main broadband providers to block popular file-
sharing sites. BPI, MPA and other copyright owners have aimed UK’s largest
ISPS such as BT (Plus net included), Virgin Media and Sky (O2 and Be included)
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to block Pirate Bay, Kickass Torrents, Newzbin2, Download4All, Movie2k and
EZTV.
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Interview Design
Researcher has personally approached to talk about the conducting the interview
possibility. The participants asked questions about the process and time
arrangements convenient to both researcher and participant. 26 students were
asked to participate in the interview but 16 agreed to do it. Participating students
were informed about the nature and purpose of the interview before carrying out
the interview. The interview was between 25 to 55 minutes.
Validity
Validity was tested by conducting two pilot interviews prior to the main interviews
by asking the respondents how they thought the interview was.
Interview Strategy
The interview was created into seven units. The first unit asked about
demographic information to build rapport with the respondents to make them feel
comfortable and their music downloading behavior. This unit will build basic
respondents profile like age, occupation. The second unit asked about sampling
method of downloading. Sampling method is the main argument in favor of
illegal downloading. The questions were regarding illegal downloaded music for
the purpose of trying out and buying it later.
The third unit asked about social norms. The first two questions tried to assess
the comparison between their own behaviour and friends and family.
The fifth and sixth unit enquire legal threats and legal alternatives to piracy.
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The seventh unit is designed to get participants views towards music industry.
The interview design allowed the researcher to build rapport with the participants.
The interview to examine further the relationship between researcher and
respondents had developed.
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R9 Male 20 5200 Student 2000 Kickasstorrent
sBitTorrents
R10 Female 22 3375 Student 5000 PiratebayBitTo
rrent
R11 Female 21 3375 Student 4000 Kickasstorrent
sBitTorrents
R12 Male 21 3375 Student 8000 PiratebayBitTo
rrent
R13 Female 22 4200 Student 400 PiratebayBitTo
rrent
R14 Male 22 3375 Student 800-1000 DemonoidBitT
orrent
R15 Male 21 3375 Student 10,000 PiratebayBitTo
rrent
R16 Male 23 3375 Student 300 Kickasstorrent
sBitTorrents
Each respondent was given a code. The letter R stands for respondents for
interview and number represents the order they were interviewed. The objective
of the research which was who is doing music piracy and what do they use is
satisfied by this unit. All participants were students between the age of 19-23.
The research may limit the effectiveness if results from the interview due to the
fact that general population was not represented. Digital music piracy behavioral
model shows that older people above 29 years of age will engage less in illegal
downloading. This gives the chance that the information on respondents
between the age of 24 and 29 would improve the results. The students whose
income was £3375 shows that individuals with lower incomes are more likely to
turn to piracy instead of buying and sample new music. 100% students
download music from P2P services from the BitTorrent sites. Pirate bay and
Kickasstorrents were the most common sites amongst the sample
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Have you downloaded as a sample method
The results showed that only three of the 16 participants (R3, R6, R10) had used
sampling method to buy music: A quote from 16 stated:
“I do download a track from my favorite singer when the songs are released just
to see if I like them. I do buy tracks right away sometimes without downloading,
if I love the singer and the track I always buy it”
Among all the participants the most common response received was they would
not buy a track if they already got it for free.
The answer ranged from friends to parents. R7 responded that it is a norm in his
group of friends, they text each other to download a good song before going out
at nights.
Only one student admitted that he does evaluate the wrongness of his action
(R1) and he does realize that some bad might come out of his actions. All the
other 15 did not feel that illegal download is an ethical dilemma for them.
Do you think the moral values of illegal downloader’s are same to those
who legally download their music?
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The researcher received mixed results. Only 6 students responded that the
moral values are not the same because people who buy music want to support
the artist. The other 10 students said that they are same because either way
they want to enjoy music its just a matter of choice.
Are you aware of legal downloading platforms? Do you identify the current
attempt of music industry to combat piracy and what are your views on
legal downloading methods?
All sixteen students knew about legal downloading platforms, with most common
is iTunes. 9 of the participants have actually purchased songs of iTunes.
R14 stated that he just downloads music from Demonoid and drag it to iTunes to
put it straight on to iPod.
How do you feel about the legal threat which illegal download pose on
individual in the form of lawsuit?
The responses indicated that students believe a threat of getting caught and
penalized is very insignificant. R9 stated that it must have been one in a million if
they even fined so he’s not worried at all.
I’ve downloaded around 10,000 songs and they haven’t caught me yet I don’t
they can ever. (R15)
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!3 out of 16 admitted that they would probably stop illegal downloading if the
chances of getting prosecuted was higher. R7 and R10 it wouldn’t completely
stop them.
How would you feel if specific Bit Torrent site got shut down?
14 responded that they would switch to another site. Three said they would be
annoyed but they would try something else. The response indicated that illegal
downloading is more influential than the programmes.
Legal actions taken by the music industry on people so far are unable to serve as
discouragement.
Majority of students have perceived the industry as greedy because the prices of
music is too high. All students believe music industry is highly rich and everyone
belong to it are well paid. R17 said that “Album prices are ridiculously high.
Tickets and merchandise price is ridiculously high and expensive. They all have
luxurious lives”.
What negative affects if any do you think can piracy have on the
industry?
The answer to this question were that all students agreed that record label
and artists would gain less money off album sales. One of the student R9
said that Megastores went out of business because high street retailers are
affected
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Evaluation Method
The researcher have used semi-structured interviews on one on one basis.
The richer data was collected by participants. The validity and success of an
interview rests on the whether the respondents opinion are true. Validity
threat to interview is the use of leading questions or the preconceived ideas
researcher’s which influence what worth discussing. The live nature of face-
to-face interviewing and language difficulty is not easy to avoid. On the other
hand the complexity gave rich and deep data. The researcher has use
participatory approach in which the interview data are evaluated and
increases internal validity.
3.2 Interpret and analyze the results in terms of the original research
specification
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Bit Torrent site, and Pirate Bay and Kickass torrents were the most popular
ones. The research showed that sampling method applies on small minority
of music pirates. I found that increasingly piracy social acceptance leads to
no ethical dilemma for the user. Students justified their behavior through
denying their responsibility of using unauthorized downloading.
The study found all students were aware of legal downloading sites. However
researcher found it very interesting that some of the students were actually
using legal alternatives to help transfer illegal music files. Students have lack
of knowledge about subscription services, industry should encourage
promotions of the legal sites to handle illegal methods.
Students were not concerned about potential legal action, because the
number of penalized cases is very small. Students majority are willing to stop
downloading if the chances of being prosecuted is higher. Students’
perception about music industry is very negative, they believe piracy is not
affecting music industry but they are aware of the negative effects on the loss
of jobs for common people. The effort of music industry to educate people
about the affect of illegal downloading is working as figures by IFPI reported
that there has been rise in revenues through legal digital downloading sites.
The study was exploratory and there was a lack of quantitative findings, but
the research does provide a multidimensional explanatory understanding into
what is useful to measure people’s attitudes toward downloading.
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The first limitation of the research was that the respondents were mostly
males than females which could have affected the validity of the sample and
making females seems that they download as much as males unreliable. The
study should’ve been done by equal genders.
The second limitation was that sample was targeted on students because
student population use illegal downloading and music piracy more than any
other sample. A mix of demographics could be implied on further research.
Recommendations
The research has found that there are more P2P users that is why
more research should conducted into P2P rise.
Spotify should focus on educating people on the benefits of
subscription services such as Spotify.
Industries should create package to stop illegal digital content .
Spotify should come up with packages particularly for student which is
cost effective and will encourage them to turn to Spotify and not
towards illegal networks.
Money is the main issue for illegal downloads, Spotify should introduce
a package that fits for students needs which price is reasonable and
attractive enough to pursue students towards Spotify since student
population is the largest user of the music piracy.
Spotify can improve its “like based” radio stations, it can partners with
other distribution channels, balance the effects of networks and open
services.
Spotify should also continue with its strategy of bundling and
decreasing switching costs from competitors
Spotify have to improve its algorithms to better quality than Pandora.
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Spotify could partner with the car companies because large amount of
music is listened to in the car, Spotify can develop a Sirius radio type
service that streams user’s personaised music library in their car.
Research has found that majority of consumer does not find music downloading
unethical because it has grown within the social norms of society’s youth.
Neutralization was used to predict the pattern of illegal downloading behavior.
Primary research and secondary research (literature) was used for a better
understanding of piracy. It could be useful for industry to make efforts to
understand piracy more especially in universities where illegal downloading is
used by dense student population.
Proportion of young people do not notice the industry’s efforts even though they
know the situation and they are not threatened by the legal action which
organizations has taken. It is clear from the research that subscription services
such as Spotify must be focused by industry. The study has shown that there is
a huge lack of knowledge about the advantages of subscription services to
consumers. Spotify should be made a mainstream as much as Bit Torrent.
Final thought on conclusion is that music piracy is here to stay. People will get
better opportunities of downloading contents illegally then music piracy will
increase. The primary research suggests that people are not going to stop
unless there is a higher chance of prosecution.
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DISTINCTION CRITERIA
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consumers. There is a desperate need for educating them and promoting
services like Spotify for people to stop music piracy
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D3 Demonstrate Convergent/Lateral/ Creative Thinking
File sharing technology has enabled consumers to copy music, books, videos
and games. Copyright holders and multinational music industries make and sell
the material are not happy with this development. Their revenues are threatened
by file sharing so they take drastic measures to sue for huge amounts of money
people who are engage in file sharing. Millions of people in majority are the
youth but not all are engaged in file sharing.
I believe prosecuting users for file sharing will not do any good for society. To
the consumer just because file sharing is illegal does not make it immoral.
Young people are questioning the laws merit that restricts them from sharing
material. They break copyright laws because they to them laws are not fair
Since young people are most likely to use file sharing sites due to the fact that
youth and students have limited or nonexistent funds therefore, they approach
free media with one in a million chances of being caught is too good to waste.
BPI blames the loss of revenue to illegal downloading but they did not mention
anything about how much are artists losing from illegal music downloads. To my
understanding the artists have never been that well paid by the record label.
action is needed to protect those jobs and allow Britain to achieve its potential in
the global digital market”. I was thinking that record labels want government’s
help instead of doing something to help millions of UK workers. We all know
record labels are multi-billion pound industries that reported sales growth and
still asking government’s help that has just gone through most sever public sector
cuts in the lifetime for help. I wouldn’t expect anything soon if I was Mr. Taylor.
I would think if record labels would reduce prices, increase loyalty and not be so
greedy then BPI can see the growth it wants.
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Bibliography
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fromhttp://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/retail/2011-u-s-album-sales-still-strong-after-
1005392822.story.accessed on 3/6/2014
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