Why money doesn't motivate file-sharers

nk497 writes: File-sharers aren't motivated by financial gain, but by altruism, according to an economist. Joe Cox, of the Portsmouth Business School, said those uploading content for others to share don't see what they're doing as illegal, meaning current tactics to deter piracy are doomed to fail. "The survey data suggested there was a deep-seated belief that this type of activity shouldn’t be illegal, that there was no criminal act involved.

That makes it very hard to deter with advertising," he said, adding that the UK's plans to cut off file-sharers under the Digital Economy Act wasn't worth the effort. "The amount of resources it would take to investigate people’s online activity to the extent that you get judicial proof of the download is economically inefficient. It’s not going to work." Instead, he thinks music, movies and other digital content should be seen as a public good, like street lights and national defence, where someone can benefit from it even if they don’t pay for it, and if any one person consumes the good it doesn’t affect anyone else’s ability to consume it too. That would mean creative industries would need to be funded by taxes or levies on digital players, he noted.