Fewer Than 1 in 10 Teenagers Believe that Music Piracy is Morally Wrong

April 26, 2004

(Ventura, CA) – For decades, music has created a source of identity and enjoyment for teenagers. While that has been true for many years, a major recent change concerns how teenagers acquire their favorite musical styles and artists. Millions of teens now copy CDs for friends and download unauthorized songs from the Internet – activities commonly referred to as “music piracy.” To address the piracy problem, the recording industry has leveraged legal action against music downloaders and tried to force the closure of illegal Internet music-sharing services (such as the original Napster and Kazaa).

But a new study conducted by The Barna Group suggests that, despite the widespread coverage of the legal arguments and fight against piracy, most young consumers possess no moral qualms about getting music illegally. Instead, the vast majority of teens (86%) believes that music piracy – including copying a CD for a friend or downloading non-promotional music online for free – either is morally acceptable or is not even a moral issue. Just 8% claim that such activities are morally wrong.

Moreover, the online survey of 1,448 teenagers showed that a teen’s moral perspective on music piracy was the most significant predictor of his or her engagement in music theft. The study, conducted for the Nashville, Tenn.-based Gospel Music Association (GMA), also discovered that the piracy-related views and behaviors of born again Christian teens are nearly the same as those of non-born again young people.

Four Views on Piracy

Teens were asked whether they feel two common forms of music piracy – copying CDs for friends and downloading unauthorized music from the Internet – were morally right, morally wrong, or not a moral issue. Only 1 in every 13 teenagers (8%) expressed moral opposition to piracy – claiming that both copying CDs for others and unauthorized downloading were morally wrong.

However, there are two and a half times more teenagers on the other side of the moral spectrum: 21% of teens said that both CD burning and downloading are morally OK

The most prolific group of teens – representing 2 in every 3 teenagers (65%) – is the moral pragmatists, embracing a “whatever works” philosophy regarding music acquisition. These teenagers believe that music piracy is not a moral issue, or they possess inconsistent views about CD burning and downloading (that is, believing one is wrong while the other is fine). Another 6% of teenagers said they were “ undecided” about the morality of music piracy.

Faith Matters?

The study shows that born again Christian teens are not much different than are non-born again teens in terms of holding an anti-piracy moral position. Just 10% of Christian teens believe that copying CDs for friends and unauthorized music downloading are morally wrong, compared to 6% of non-born agains (the four-point difference barely qualified as statistically significant). Also, the proportion of pragmatists was statistically equivalent – 64% of born again Christians and 66% of non-Christians.

One of the most troubling findings of the survey was the fact that most teens opposed to music piracy are not entirely convinced that their perspectives are correct. Just 1 in every 3 teens (36%) who take the piracy-is-wrong view said they feel very certain of that stance. That means just 1 out of every 50 American teens is strongly convinced that it is wrong to copy CDs for friends or to download music illegally. To make matters worse, two-thirds of those teens who embrace piracy (64%) are convinced of their views.