'Illegal downloads are acceptable', say half of EU An EU study reveals that 96 per cent of people agree it is vital to protect intellectual property (IP) rights, but that 42 per cent also believe it is acceptable to illegally download music and films for personal use. This rises to 57 per cent among those aged between 15 and 24-years-old. The research by the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), which stores and enforces trade marks and patents in the EU, found that Europeans were "largely favourable" to IP laws designed to protect the work of artists and inventors, but that many also had no qualms about committing copyright offences. Some nine per cent of Europeans admitted that they had illegally downloaded files in the last year. Young people were more likely to have pirated music or films recently, with 26 per cent of those aged between 15 and 24 owning up, falling to 17 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds, nine per cent of those aged 35 to 44, five per cent of those between 45 and 54 years old and only two per cent of those over 55. Men were disproportionately more likely to have illegally downloaded content than women, with 13 per cent of admitting to having done it in the last year versus only six per cent of women. Education levels also seem to play a strong role in the likelihood that somebody pirates content. Only three per cent of those who left school before the age of 15 had downloaded copyright material in the previous 12 months, rising to six per cent of those who studied to between 16 and 19-years-old, ten per cent of those who stayed in education until they were at least 20 and 27 per cent of those who were still studying beyond that age. The report said: "This paradox lies in the fact that these two attitudes are not mutually exclusive. A large majority of EU citizens display strong support for IP and yet consider that, at a personal level, breaking these rules may be justified to cope with the consequences of limited purchasing power or to protest against an economic model driven by a market economy and premium brands. This apparent contradiction highlights the gap that exists between shared principles (that would apply when considering society at large) and the realities of pragmatic and probably more self-centred individual way of life. Is it acceptable to illegally download music and films for personal use? Part of the problem seems to stem from a lack of awareness that content can be bought and downloaded legally. Only 65 per cent of people were aware that there were legal ways to download music, and 56 per cent that you could buy films digitally online. Some 80pc of Europeans agreed that when there is an affordable legal option they prefer to use it rather than illegally download content. Research from Birmingham University last year showed that anyone using an illegal filesharing service to download films or music is likely to have their computer's IP address recorded within three hours. According to the study, there were roughly 10 different monitoring firms logging content. Some were copyright-enforcement organisations, others were security firms and there were even other research labs.