In early 2012 the Intellectual Property Office funded Ofcom to conduct research intended to improve understanding of consumers' behaviour and attitudes towards lawful and unlawful access of copyright material using the internet.
The primary objective was to gather data and generate insights that could be used to assist policy-making related to online copyright enforcement. This followed the adoption by Government of a recommendation made in the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth.
The research demonstrated the clear demand for online access to copyright material. However, infringement was a minority activity; we estimated in 2013 that 17% of internet users consumed at least one item of infringing content, which equates to around a third (29%) of all consumers of online content.
High volume infringers: analysis report Sep 2013
Online Copyright Infringement Tracker Wave 4 Sep 2013
Online Copyright Infringement Tracker Wave 3 May 2013
Online Copyright Infringement Tracker: Deep Dive Analysis Report May 2013
Online Copyright Infringement Tracker Wave 2 Mar 2013
OCI Tracker Benchmark Study Data Tables Q3 2012 Nov 2012
OCI tracker benchmark study Q3 2012 - Data reconciliations Nov 2012
OCI tracker benchmark study Q3 2012 - Introduction and key findings Nov 2012
OCI tracker benchmark study Q3 2012 - Questionnaire Nov 2012
Online copyright infringement tracker benchmark study Q3 2012 Nov 2012
OCI Slide Decks Jul 2012
Illegal file-sharing pilot peer review by Continental Research Dec 2011
Illegal file-sharing pilot survey report by Kantar Media Dec 2011
Qualitative research into online digital piracy by GfK Dec 2011