There has been a dramatic decline in music piracy among young people, study finds

Music piracy is on the decline according to a new study conducted and published by the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

The study found that only 49% of those polled between the ages of 15 and 24 admitted to having accessed pirated content online within the last year which shows a decline on the 2016 figures when 60% of those polled between those ages made the same admittance.

Figures specifically related to music piracy showed that only 39% of young people polled say they had accessed music illegally online, a significant decrease from the 56% figure that 2016's poll returned. 79% of young people have accessed pirated video content this year, which is only a slight decline from the 2016 figure of 85%.

The poll concluded that around a third of young people had accessed pirated content from illegal sources in the last year.

It was also found that pirated content was accessed in greater volumes in the poorest nations of the EU. Figures for Germany and the UK, for example, showed that pirated content was accessed by only 13% and 14% respectively of the young people polled. In Lithuania, on the other hand, a country which is recognised as one of the poorer nations in the European Union, the figure was 45%.

In June, a different study, carried out by Professor Dariusz Jemielniak of Kozminski University on 100 Harvard Law students, found that many lawyers agree that certain types of copyright infringement are acceptable.

Earlier this year, US officials set out targeting pirate radio with an aggressive new law.