Issues of intellectual property protection in Ukraine
According to the research conducted by the Sociological group "Rating", the topic of intellectual property protection in Ukraine is full of contradictions.
Ukrainians seem to understand the importance of intellectual property rights and at the same time they are not ready to comply with them, shifting all the responsibility on the government. An average Ukrainian is ready to selflessly protect his own intellectual property rights and with the same dedication - to attack intellectual rights of others.
Understanding the importance of intellectual property protection
Almost 80% of respondents believe that intellectual property rights should be protected (incl. 58% - should always be protected, 21% - should not always be protected). Only 4% have the opposite opinion. Other 17% - are undecided about this issue.
Only 13% of respondents believe that actions of the government as to protection of intellectual property rights in Ukraine are effective, while 60% - ineffective. Other 27% - have not decided on their opinions.
Compliance with intellectual property rights in practice
If a person has a choice to buy a copy of the book, reprinted from the original, at a price lower than the original with a quality a little worse or the same as the original, only 13% will refuse to buy the cheap copy and will buy the original. However, 32% will buy the cheap copy, while 26% will try to receive the book for free (for example, download from the Internet). 30% of respondents were not able to decide, mostly elderly people.
If a person has a choice to buy a music CD, a film CD or computer program copied from the original, at a price lower than the original with a quality a little worse or the same as the original, only 12% of respondents will refuse to buy the cheap copy and will buy the original. However, 25% will buy the cheap copy, while 31% - will try to receive it for free (for example, download from the Internet). 32% of respondents were not able to decide.
If a person has a choice to buy clothes that imitate clothes manufactured by world renowned producers, at a price lower than the original with a quality a little worse or the same as the original, only 15% of respondents will refuse to buy the cheap copy and will buy the original. However, 58% will buy the cheap copy. 28% of respondents were not able to decide.
Thus, almost 60% of Ukrainian respondents are ready to violate intellectual property rights in case of purchasing clothes, books, music, films or computer programs.
Representative tendencies are observed. The younger are the respondents, the more they use the Internet, the higher is the level of their education, the more they are ready to refuse the original in favor of a cheap copy or a free version: almost 50% of respondents aged 18-29 years will try to download music, movies or computer programs from the Internet, another quarter – will buy a cheap copy, and only every tenth respondent will buy the original.
Responsibility for violation of intellectual property rights
Although the vast majority of respondents is not prepared to comply with intellectual property rights in practice, indirectly most of them understand that there should be responsibility for the violation of these rights.
Respondents were asked to imagine that they wrote a book or music, created a program or made an invention, and then found out that someone is using it for free and they receive nothing for this.
After this 18% of respondents agreed that this person needs to be punished and there should be criminal responsibility, 27% believe that there has to be administrative responsibility (e.g. a fine), other 18% indicated that a notice is enough for the first time, and one only needs to be punished when the violation is repeated.
That is, almost two-thirds of respondents would prefer to punish the person who violates their intellectual property rights.
Only 18% of respondents said they would not support penalties, incl. 11% - indicated that people may use their intellectual property for free, yet authorship should be indicated everywhere, and only 7% - will be glad that others use their invention and the payment is not required. Other 19% of respondents were not able to decide on this issue.
Intensification of responsibility is mostly supported by men, middle-aged people and people with secondary education. Notably, Internet users would also support intensification of responsibility in case of infringement of their intellectual property rights.
The whole paradox is that almost 60% of respondents who confessed that they would buy pirated CDs or try to get free music, movies, programs from the Internet, consider that in case of infringement of their intellectual property rights, responsibility is necessary, incl. 16% - criminal responsibility.
The target audience of the research: the population of Ukraine aged from 18 and older. Optional quantity: 2000 respondents. The methods of investigation: personal formalized interview according to the questionnaire (face to face). Measure of inaccuracy for the values close to 50% is less than 2.2%, for the values close to 30% – less than 2%, for the values close to 10% – less than 1.3. The period of completion: 15-26 of March 2012
The oblast’ distribution:
West: Volyns’ka, Transcarpathia, Ivano–Frankivs’ka, L’vivs’ka, Rivnens’ka, Ternopil’s’ka, Chernivets’ka.
Centre: Vinnyts’ka, Kirovograds’ka, Poltavs’ka, Khmel’nyts’ka, Cherkas’ka.
North: Kyiv, Kyivs’ka, Zhytomyrs’ka, Sums’ka, Chernihivs’ka.
South: AR Crimea, Odes’ka, Khersons’ka, Mykolaivs’ka, Sevastopol
East: Dnipropetrovs’ka, Zaporiz’ka, Kharkivs’ka.
Donbass: Donets’ka, Luhans’ka.
