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"The UK's Independent newspaper picks up on a curious study today: people who download music illegally also buy more music legally, according to a poll's results.  The study comes as the UK plans a controversial \"three strikes and you're out\" rule that would disconnect copyright infringers from the Internet - it's set to become law in April 2010.  \nThe Independent writes:\nThe survey, published today, found that those who admit illegally downloading music spent an average of \u00A377 a year on music \u2013 \u00A333 more than those who claim that they never download music dishonestly...The poll, which surveyed 1,000 16- to 50-year-olds with internet access, found that one in 10 people admit to downloading music illegally. \nWe see a few caveats here, the main one being that Internet users were simply asked whether they download content illegally or not: given that this would be admitting to a crime, that metric could be under-reported.  Frankly, this self-reporting of illegal activity seems like a dubious measurement.  The data doesn't necessarily undermine the plans, either: 61% of illegal downloaders said they'd be dissuaded from downloading illegally if doing so resulted in being disconnected for one month.\nThe debate is a legitimate one: some UK ISPs are concerned about essentially becoming Internet watchdogs, and point out that enforcement would take significant effort on their part.  Others point to over-regulation of Internet access.  There's a case to be made, too, that consumers seem willing to pay if the price is low enough and the process effortless (eg. iTunes).    \nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, cogar"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/11/01/downloaders-poll/>