A Third Of People Copy DVD Rentals

Honestly, how many of you rip, copy, and burn your DVD rentals and then send them right back for another?

According to a report titled Consumer Home Piracy Research Findings July 2008 nearly one third of people copy DVDs. Of those that copy DVDs in the U.S. over half are copying DVDs rented from sources like Blockbuster and Netflix.

The study commissioned by anti-piracy firm Macrovision for Futuresource Consulting found that copying DVDs is on the rise compared to 2007. Survey participants admit to copying about 12 DVDs on average in the past six months.

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How Are They Doing It?

The most common method for copying DVDs is either from a DVD player to a DVD recorder or using one of a number of software applications for ripping and burning DVD copies. According to the study 18 percent of those that copy DVDs in the U.S. said they tried and failed to copy a DVD compared to 8 percent in the UK.

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One might say Hollywood is fighting an uphill battle on this front given the proliferation of DVD-duplication tools available for free on the Internet or even sold in stores.


The study clearly is a pitch for Macrovision's anti-piracy technology. One of the conclusions of the Consumer Home Piracy study is if want-to-be DVD pirates can't make a copy of a DVD then between 63 and 77 percent of them would have purchased the DVD.

For its study Futuresource surveyed 3613 U.S. residents and 1718 from the U.K. earlier this year.

Futuresource survey (pdf): futuresource-consulting.com