LONDON, June 16 (UPI) -- A survey conducted by England's University of Hertfordshire suggests the average teen's digital music player contains more than 800 illegally copied songs.
The Times of London reported the research also showed about 50 percent of 14- to 24-year-olds were willing to share all the music on their hard drives, theoretically allowing others to copy hundreds or thousands of songs at a time.
Fergal Sharkey, former lead singer of the Undertones and now chief executive of British Music Rights, told The Times he once was "one of those people who went around the back of the bike shed with songs I had taped off the radio the night before."
"But this totally dwarfs that, and anything we expected," Sharkey said.
The Hertfordshire study suggests about 48 percent of the average digital collection is copied illegally, while the number of pirated tracks rises to 61 percent among 14- to 17-year-olds.
The research also found about 14 percent of the CDs in the average young person's collection have been illegally copied, The Times said.
