Hey, Netherlandian young adults! Stop all the downloadin'! If a recent survey of 3,500 folks between the ages of 12 - 24 (issued by Dutch television program EénVandaag) is accurate, 93 percent of Dutch adolescents "download music, movies or games from the Internet," while only five percent use honest, paid services such as iTunes and Steam. The remaining two percent responded with a perplexed "vwat ees an eentarnet?"
An interesting caveat: Downloading copyrighted media isn't actually illegal in the Netherlands -- but uploading copyrighted works is. Bizarrely enough, the Dutch pirates' preferred form of file sharing is BitTorrent, with 45 percent using sites such as The Pirate Bay to yoink their movies, music and games. However, BitTorrenting, which causes users to download and upload simultaneously, is illegal under the Netherlands' copyright regulations. Fascinating, right? Right?
[Via MaxConsole]
Reader Comments (90)
Posted: Jun 1st 2009 1:48PM (Unverified) said
dude, you don't have a language, you have a dialect
warmen foodken
Kalden Dranken
that's an accent...(I just tried google translate, and I didn't find "foodken" as a word, but I swear I saw that somewhere...)
Reply
warmen foodken
Kalden Dranken
that's an accent...(I just tried google translate, and I didn't find "foodken" as a word, but I swear I saw that somewhere...)
Posted: May 23rd 2009 9:19PM Slaziman said
That's funny, a few centuries ago the Dutch HATED pirates...
Posted: May 23rd 2009 9:32PM Roto13 said
The only people I knew in high school who didn't pirate anything were the ones without internet connections. And even they had their friends pirate stuff for them.
Posted: May 24th 2009 8:37PM Ashitaka said
I think that among teens all over the world (at least in developed countries) it's normal to download pretty much anything we want.
I mean yeah, we all know it's illegal, but the hell with it. We are never gonna get caught, so maybe that's why we do it.
All my friends (and I really mean all of them) have downloaded games/music/films/tv shows illegally at some point and most of them do it on a regular basis (myself included, I dare to say... [but games I have only downloaded 2 or 3]).
It'd be interesting and I'd like to see a similar survey conducted here in Portugal. The results would be above 90% for sure.
Reply
I mean yeah, we all know it's illegal, but the hell with it. We are never gonna get caught, so maybe that's why we do it.
All my friends (and I really mean all of them) have downloaded games/music/films/tv shows illegally at some point and most of them do it on a regular basis (myself included, I dare to say... [but games I have only downloaded 2 or 3]).
It'd be interesting and I'd like to see a similar survey conducted here in Portugal. The results would be above 90% for sure.
Posted: May 23rd 2009 9:36PM LaughingTarget said
Pugnacious Pepsi pirates purloin property.
Posted: May 23rd 2009 10:15PM The Wicker Man said
lolz, lolz, and roflz- good alliterative sir.
Reply
Posted: May 23rd 2009 10:23PM (Unverified) said
Peoplez cmon! Netherlands aint only about hash weed and hoes! I actually when visited it went to a fishing museum in Groningen, and it was really interesting, I mean really!
And my original intent was to attend a progressive rock music festival, and I went. Mind blowing!
Other intention of mine was to actually prove to myself that Holland had no hills whatsoever and that it was all plain. Men, I wasn't mistaken.
Well...I admit I failed and sined as well. Yes, yes. I went and entered in the coffee shops.
But, but, all I wanted to do was drink coffee!!! But the dark side turned on me....damn you REVAN!!!
And my original intent was to attend a progressive rock music festival, and I went. Mind blowing!
Other intention of mine was to actually prove to myself that Holland had no hills whatsoever and that it was all plain. Men, I wasn't mistaken.
Well...I admit I failed and sined as well. Yes, yes. I went and entered in the coffee shops.
But, but, all I wanted to do was drink coffee!!! But the dark side turned on me....damn you REVAN!!!
Posted: May 23rd 2009 10:30PM (Unverified) said
The fact is, in my opinion it ain't. I was just trying to be funny and not eventually start a flame war of opinions about if is it right or wrong.
"sigh" gotta start me some growth around here, so I wont go this summer again to netherlands though... :P
Reply
"sigh" gotta start me some growth around here, so I wont go this summer again to netherlands though... :P
Posted: May 23rd 2009 10:55PM R Planteer said
Double post:
@slycooper:
No they dont, your best bet for naruto is fansubs or, Hulu if your in america.
@slycooper:
No they dont, your best bet for naruto is fansubs or, Hulu if your in america.
Posted: May 23rd 2009 11:00PM R Planteer said
Wow, reply system sucks when your internet is having issues.
Yes, its on Hulu. It was being broadcasted with a 1 week delay, but I think its same day now.
Reply
Yes, its on Hulu. It was being broadcasted with a 1 week delay, but I think its same day now.
Posted: May 24th 2009 12:31AM (Unverified) said
The practise of downloading copyrighted material is widely accepted amongst all age groups here in the Netherlands. Although I buy a lot more than I used to as a teenager, I continue to download from newsgroups and peer to peer. So does everybody else I know.
Posted: May 24th 2009 4:08AM (Unverified) said
Its actually LEGAL to download in Holland. However, when its software f.e. Creative Suite, you must contain the software as purchased.
Music and movies, are legal to download. The uploading is punished in Holland. There have been two or three cases that actually made the court and resulted in a fine (which wasn't that high).
Yes, I live there. Internet is overall faster and we are one of the countries with most active internet connections. A average speed to the dutch is 20mbit/2MB without any bandwith cap.
-Ed
Music and movies, are legal to download. The uploading is punished in Holland. There have been two or three cases that actually made the court and resulted in a fine (which wasn't that high).
Yes, I live there. Internet is overall faster and we are one of the countries with most active internet connections. A average speed to the dutch is 20mbit/2MB without any bandwith cap.
-Ed
Posted: May 24th 2009 4:47AM Bowser Rogozhin said
Well, with their culture being usurped by Islamic militants and ever increasing sea levels about to overtake their low lying land, the Dutch need something to take their minds off impending doom. Some sort of release. It's either that or hooliganism, but Feyenoord supporters are suddenly hard to find.
Posted: May 24th 2009 2:01PM JoshMilewski said
Yeah, that Islam bullshit is the only thing bad I can find about the country.
Reply
Posted: May 24th 2009 7:11AM (Unverified) said
Americans are fat, bwah!
Posted: May 24th 2009 9:32AM (Unverified) said
And rich, don't forget that
Well...compared to the rest of the world we are :(
Reply
Well...compared to the rest of the world we are :(
Posted: May 24th 2009 8:00AM (Unverified) said
Piracy has always been more rampant in Europe, it's been like that in the 80s and seems to only have grown since.
What worries me is the amount of people that exclusively get their media (music, movies, videogames) by ways of piracy. For some entertainment is seen as a commodity that is freely available and not worth any payment.
I have no problem with sharing, but do buy some DVDs, CDs and games every now and then, you are diluting entertainment if you do not.
What worries me is the amount of people that exclusively get their media (music, movies, videogames) by ways of piracy. For some entertainment is seen as a commodity that is freely available and not worth any payment.
I have no problem with sharing, but do buy some DVDs, CDs and games every now and then, you are diluting entertainment if you do not.
Posted: May 24th 2009 12:09PM (Unverified) said
Don't forget to mention that the EU market is larger than the North America market (yes, including Canada and Mexico). People in the EU on average spend more money on entertainment that the people in NA.
Also... this survey is just a case of lies, damned lies and statistics. If you get the question "Have you ever downloaded something illegally?" then most people will/should answer "yes". A subsequent question "After downloading, did you buy the product, or did you discard the content because you didn't like, or you kept it?" would be much more interesting. In a recent Dutch study on the same subject it was shown that people who download the most also spend the most money on buying/licensing the entertainment products. EenVandaag is a piece of shit "current events" show, which does very poor research.
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/29/0810250
Reply
Also... this survey is just a case of lies, damned lies and statistics. If you get the question "Have you ever downloaded something illegally?" then most people will/should answer "yes". A subsequent question "After downloading, did you buy the product, or did you discard the content because you didn't like, or you kept it?" would be much more interesting. In a recent Dutch study on the same subject it was shown that people who download the most also spend the most money on buying/licensing the entertainment products. EenVandaag is a piece of shit "current events" show, which does very poor research.
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/29/0810250
Posted: May 24th 2009 9:09AM (Unverified) said
lol why perform a survey? No doubt that at least 90% of the world downloads illegally.
In Turkey absolutely all young people download illegally, I'm pretty confident a survey would yield 100%
In Turkey absolutely all young people download illegally, I'm pretty confident a survey would yield 100%
Posted: May 24th 2009 9:31AM amnesia said
Can someone help me with this stupid issue?! Everytime I go into a topic it automatically posts this post that I posted months ago.
Oh just in case tehre aren't enough posts in my sentence. Post.
Oh just in case tehre aren't enough posts in my sentence. Post.
Posted: May 24th 2009 10:05AM Anoniempje said
There are of course many flaws in this type of survey. First off, respondents were recruited through online forums and even highly tech oriented communities such as Tweakers. Among these tech savvy and active Internet users the percentage of P2P-users is undoubtedly higher than average. Secondly, the survey was promoted as a “download” survey, this will of course attract the attention of those who actually download more than those who don’t.
Polls and surveys can be very misleading, especially when they are ill constructed. What we can conclude from the Dutch survey, although carefully, is that The Netherlands has quite a few active BitTorrent users and that they are confident that Mininova will beat BREIN in court. Let’s hope that a similar survey among lawyers would reach a similar conclusion.
Polls and surveys can be very misleading, especially when they are ill constructed. What we can conclude from the Dutch survey, although carefully, is that The Netherlands has quite a few active BitTorrent users and that they are confident that Mininova will beat BREIN in court. Let’s hope that a similar survey among lawyers would reach a similar conclusion.
Posted: May 24th 2009 10:07AM (Unverified) said
I buy the song from iTunes, then download a free MP3 version of it for playability on my non-iPod media player.
Also, if I'm not able to buy the media, then I download it. I can't get Jump! Stars in the US, and they don't sell Final Fantasy VII anymore, so nobody really loses anything and I get more games.
Also, if I'm not able to buy the media, then I download it. I can't get Jump! Stars in the US, and they don't sell Final Fantasy VII anymore, so nobody really loses anything and I get more games.
Posted: May 24th 2009 12:12PM juggalotusmx said
93 percent of Dutch youngsters download illegally and only 4 percent read play or listen all they media downloaded. (im interested about that too, is like some ppl hack site and stuff just for the challenge)
Posted: May 24th 2009 12:20PM (Unverified) said
This just in: Dutch youngsters more honest than youngsters from any other nation.
Posted: May 24th 2009 1:20PM GenGrievous said
Like someone else mentioned. Downloading software (includes Games) is illegal in the Netherlands. Movies and Music are not.
Posted: May 24th 2009 1:58PM JoshMilewski said
The Netherlands seems like one of the best places to live in the world, with more freedom than anywhere else.
Can anyone who lives there tell me anything bad about the country?
This is a serious question.
Can anyone who lives there tell me anything bad about the country?
This is a serious question.
Posted: May 25th 2009 2:40PM (Unverified) said
The rise of islam has its bad side. The police isnt there for you when you need them, bunch of scared losers. Fuel for your car is one of the highests in the world! Actually all taxes on cars are crazy high. It is hard to find a house in Amsterdam (for students on a nice location :P)
Reply
Posted: May 25th 2009 1:33PM JoshMilewski said
"The rise of islam has its bad side. The police isnt there for you when you need them, bunch of scared losers."
Are these two separate statements? Commenting on each of them separately:
1) Islam: It seems this is a bigger problem in Europe than I initially thought. Well, to say it exactly, it seems Europeans are a bunch of xenophobic fools who are unwilling to accept Islam into their societies (even though 'freedom of religion' is a fundamental part of Western values).
2) The police are a bunch of cowards...really? In what way?
Reply
Are these two separate statements? Commenting on each of them separately:
1) Islam: It seems this is a bigger problem in Europe than I initially thought. Well, to say it exactly, it seems Europeans are a bunch of xenophobic fools who are unwilling to accept Islam into their societies (even though 'freedom of religion' is a fundamental part of Western values).
2) The police are a bunch of cowards...really? In what way?
Posted: May 24th 2009 6:27PM (Unverified) said
Piracy. The choice of a younger generation
Posted: May 25th 2009 1:11AM (Unverified) said
Hey Kid! I'm a computer!
Posted: May 25th 2009 5:35AM iNZoW said
Well personally, i purchased all of my video games. However, here in Kuwait it's really hard to get the music i like to listen to or TV shows.
If i had an option i wouldn't pirate. And the only reason i could buy the video games is that retailers here import them, bit overpriced though.
If i had an option i wouldn't pirate. And the only reason i could buy the video games is that retailers here import them, bit overpriced though.
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