The 5th Estate: Citizen News

P2P Not to Blame for Content Industry Failures Says EU.

The report finds, in a surprising contradiction to what industry executives have been spouting for ages, consumers’ behavior has nothing to do with the peer-to-peer technology (P2P) that has given rise to all-you-can-eat systems for free downloads of copyrighted content. In fact, many people claim that they wouldn’t pay for online content even if all other free options were taken away. This finding has dramatic implications for the future of business, and not just in the entertainment industry, either. If people won’t pay for content, how will companies survive?

the EU study reports on the state of the online entertainment industry, revealing factoids like “less than 5% of Europeans have paid for online content in the last three months” and in the youngest age group “this figure is twice as high.” In other words, willingness to pay is an issue that’s only getting worse with each new generation of users, so something needs to be done…and done quick.