This is why Hungarians buy replicas

According to napi.h, 2/3 of the European Union’s population thinks that the protection of intellectual property is the base of economic stability. Still, too many people buy replicas. ¾ of the younger groups rather buy replicas for lower prices than the other way around. The main cause of downloading copy righted contents seems to be the lack of knowledge, as it turned out from the European Union Intellectual Property Offices’ newest report.

Most people buy replicas because the price of the original product is much higher. Almost ¾ (72%) of the 15-24 age group, while more than half (58%) of the over-55-population put lower price as the main condition of buying original products.

The majority, while doing this, still knows that the lack of laws on intellectual property would lead to an economic chaos (73% and 70%). Almost half of the European citizens (44%) believe that big businesses and famous artists profit from the protection of intellectual property mainly, and strict regulations concerning consumers are insensible.

When it comes to online content, most users can’t decide what counts as a legal and illegal source: last year 24% of users got thinking about whether or not the use of certain downloading sites was legal. This is a 5 percentage point increase compared to 2013. However, the use of legal online services grew by 7 percentage points, which means that 27% of respondents paid for some kind of legal content in the past year.

Young people like to buy cheap replicas, but they are also the ones who mostly choose legal sources when searching for something on the internet. However, it’s a bit worrying that 27% thinks that illegal content is much more diverse than the legal versions.

“Despite the progressing tendency, there’s still a significant lack of knowledge concerning what counts as original or fake. This is why, besides the sanctions, we find it crucial to inform users so they can recognise illegal content and fake products, and their hazardous effects” wrote Secretary Mónika Németh in the announcement of the National Board Against Counterfeiting.

A generally uninformed environment is shown by the fact that half of the respondents think that the strict protection of intellectual property has a negative effect on innovation. 59% of the younger generation (aged 15-24) and 57% of those who buy replicas or use illegal content agree with this statement.

The negative effects of counterfeit reaches billions of euros worth harm, every year. The loss of income is about 45.3 billion euros solely in the market of mobile phone producers.

Ce: bm

Source: http://www.napi.hu/