IT professionals’ illegal downloading puts companies at risk

Keri Allan

about 1 year ago 0 Comments

Complacent UK IT professionals could be putting their companies at risk of suspended internet service or worse by ignoring delayed anti-piracy legislation according to new research commissioned by comms and cloud service provider Star.

The company’s recent survey shows that 43 per cent of IT professionals themselves download or stream copyrighted material, with eight per cent admitting to doing so at work. The survey shows few IT professionals agree with the premise of pending copyright legislation with only 26 per cent thinking it should be illegal to download any copyrighted information in the UK.

“Delays to first SOPA/PIPA and now the Digital Economy Act (DEA) could increase what are already dangerous levels of complacency about downloading or streaming copyrighted material among the UK’s IT professionals,” says Paul Watson, interim ceo at Star.

“Regardless of their personal views about the legitimacy of the delayed Digital Economy Act, IT professionals can rest assured that piracy controls will be implemented. A failure to lead by example now could result in the organisations for which they work being subject to suspended Internet service or worse in the future.” 

Survey respondents were asked who they considered should be held responsible for the downloading or streaming of copyrighted content in their organisations. 59 per cent think the individual perpetrator should be held responsible. Those that think the organisation should be held responsible are split mainly between those thinking the IT manager should be responsible (11 per cent) and those who believe the board should be responsible (24 per cent).

What are your views on streaming or downloading copyrighted material? Have you ever done so yourself and do you agree with the view that managers or even the company board should be held responsible for any workers that do so in the workplace?

Whether or not people agree with the legislation here in the UK, these laws are coming into play and could lead to fines and worse for both companies and individuals. Do you think it’s fair that some countries are much more lenient in this area than others? I’d love to hear your thoughts…

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