Study: Online music pirates couldn't care less about copyrights.(The Orlando Sentinel)

Byline: Chris Cobbs

The stepped-up legal war on Internet music pirates could be met with stiff resistance because a new study shows two-thirds of those who download online songs say they don't care if the files are copyrighted.

An increasing number of online music downloaders take a dismissive attitude toward copyright protection, said a report released Thursday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The number of music downloaders who disregard copyright laws has grown to 67 percent, a 6 percent increase in the last three years, said the report by the Washington, D.C., firm that studies Internet issues.

And the legal battle over the control of digital media may just be in its early stages as the producers of movies, software and games seek to avoid the piracy that has beset the music industry, said Pew Director Lee Rainie.

"The arguments by the recording industry against pirating don't seem to have sunk in with a significant portion of the population," Rainie said in a telephone interview.

The view that pirating is OK signals a "transformative moment" in Internet history over how music, books, art and software are shared in the digital age, he said.