The Internet is become a growing haven for consumer deadbeats.
In a survey released Thursday, a corporate software trade group found that more than 81 percent of those computer users who download commercial software from the Internet fail to pay for all the copies of the programs they receive.
Last week, an Internet research company found that about half a million copies of free illegal copies of movies illegally posted on the Internet have been pass about.
And Jupiter Media Metrix, a company that tracks Internet usage, has found that more than two-thirds of US consumers will not pay for any services online, be it e-mail, instant messaging or other benefits.
"There's nothing online right now that is compelling enough for people to pay for right now," said Jupiter senior analyst David Card. "People have grown accustomed to getting things for free online."
The surveys show consumers are increasing their resistance to pay for services and content on the Internet, even though many companies are trying to end the "free ride."
During the Internet boon of the mid-1990s, heavily funded companies, the so-called dot-coms, decided to forego profits in exchange for snaring market share. That created a banquet of free e-mail services, online storage services and free data services such as rich financial databases found on Yahoo and other Web sites.
Then, of course, there was Napster, the ill-fated company that let some 70 million people freely swap copyrighted rock and roll and other music titles over the Internet. Napster was shutdown by the record industry litigation last summer.
Two years ago, the dot-com industry began to implode, along with their freebie offerings. But consumers, now accustomed to equating the word "free" with "online" have failed to listen to the remaining dot-com companies pleas for revenues.
"People believe that when they pay their monthly Internet fee, they're then entitled," said Card.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA), a group representing the software publishing industry, proclaimed a "disturbing trend in what it labeled" online theft after finding that 81 percent of those who downloaded software never paid for all the copies used. The survey also found that 51 percent of downloaders never paid anything for the software. The survey, conducted for the BSA by the Ipsos Public Affairs company, tallied 1,025 Internet users to come to its conclusions.
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