This is sort of congruent with the findings of WIPO we reported earlier. I am left wondering — are these kids “rationaliz[ing] their act[s]” as the IP industry wants us to believe — or should we think more fundamentally differently about downloading and accept the new cultural behaviour of online sharing as righteous and legal and fix the copyright legislation accordingly (you’ll have guessed my opinion by now). Some scholars think that the Internet is a medieval medium from before the invention of the printing press[1]. This does indeed justify rethinking legislation to suit current practice — and not the other way round, make current practice impractical by legislating.

[1] Egbert Dommering (2004). Lessen uit de geschiedenis van het auteursrecht, p. 16