Futuresource Consulting has recently released the results of a study it has carried out with regard to DVD consumer practices.
3,613 users in the U.S. and 1,718 in the U.K. were involved in the study; the conclusions are quite alarming, to say the least. As it turned out, about one third of the almost 5,500 users have the habit of making pirate copies of the commercial DVDs they view.

Some thought last year’s statististics were bad, when around one quarter of respondents admitted to have illegally made copies of original DVDs. Obviously enough, 2007's situation sounds good right about now.

The report also mentions the obvious fact that duplicating commercial DVDs has become easy and accessible to pretty much anyone these days, thanks to the recordable DVD drives that usually come with any type of PC or laptop. Furthermore, all kinds of programs are being made available online, in order to enable users to go around the copy protection which is supposed to prevent them from copying commercial DVD data.

According to the findings of the study, men with ages ranging from 18 to 24 are the most likely to illegally duplicate DVDs. Over the last six months, the average number of DVD copies was found to be of 13 in the US and of 22 in the UK.

With all the copying and downloading going on nowadays, it is very surprising studios can still make a profit with their DVDs. The situation does not show any signs of improvement, as there is very little that can be done, at least in the immediate future.