Media Coverage 2003

Cablecaster Magazine, April 21, 2003
About two-thirds say it's theft: survey

TORONTO - Maybe the industry's ad campaign against satellite signal theft is helping.

According to a recently released survey, 68% of Canadian Baby Boomers and 62% of the "Generation Y" demographic do, in fact, believe viewing satellite signals without paying is theft.

Part of the Solutions Research Group (SRG) study entitled "In The Name of Cool", a scientific telephone survey of 1,500 Canadians aged 12 and older, done in February of 2003, it found that satellite signal theft is one of the things that Boomers and their offspring agree upon.

When asked if the "use of an unauthorized satellite dish to view TV signals without payment" is theft, they agreed, to the levels stated above.

However, when asked about the use of other copyrighted material without payment, their views took different paths. For example, 55% of Boomers (now in their 40s and mid-50s) agree downloading songs off the Internet without paying is theft while only 31% of Gen Y respondents (aged 12 to 24) think so.

And, while 59% of Baby Boomers say downloading movies off the Internet is theft, 57% of Gen Y Canadians say it is not.

As for computer software, Boomers (at 67%) say making unauthorized copies is stealing while 54% of Gen Y respondents believe it is.

According to numbers from the SRG study, nearly seven million Canadians downloaded songs off the Internet at some point in the past and that movie and video downloads are "the next big thing", with an estimated three million Canadian downloaders.

"As the first generation raised on the 'browse, sample and share' culture of the Internet, Gen Y is mounting a challenge to traditional notions of intellectual property," said Kaan Yigit, a partner with SRG and the study director.

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