Hate the term consumers, though in the case of people using P2P services to rip off current movies  it's closer to the mark, and a tad more acceptable than my term parasites.  Unless you can work your way through arcane archiving programs, know what a torrent is , how to get one  and then  know enough ,to even know ,to locate and install  a codec  your experience is going to suck.   I rarely use them but admit to using torrents as my "morning after'  DVR pill.  Hey every so often a media wrapper breaks and I have to take precautions to see the show... 

And now something from the survey...  The idea that people generally download from   two sources, legit / illegitimate seems to point to how careful they are with this study.. is there a tertiary option that's not illegal but just slightly dodgy? 

Consumers generally download video from one of two sources: peer-to-peer networks that offer unauthorized copies of TV programs and films, or licensed online services like iTunes. Low satisfaction levels might be expected for consumers using unlicensed sources because their quality and reliability are generally low—a consequence of being an unlicensed service.

Parks Associates Newsroom: Consumers Give Low Marks to Video Downloading

A consequence of people sitting in a theater with a camera maybe  There's no reason that good source material can't look as good as anything  licensed when given the same access and I don't like their clouding of the issue by tying quality to business model, Yes it's more   likely a commercial release has more chance but that's not a feature of the delivery mechanism rather then the infrastructure

Where I give low marks is the intrusive nature of those legitimate services that are in existence. Taking Netflix as an example.  I pay for  3 movies out at a time. I did abandon Netflix for a couple of years after I moved to Phoenix since the turnaround was pitiful and nowhere near the standard I received in the bay area. ( we now have a local center and all is well apart from the rampant mail theft that seems to occur in places close to a border, but  I digress.   With this plan Netflix give me 17 hours of streaming video a month ( it's not a download in many people's minds but  frankly it's a download)  which after login, selection it starts to play.

Or does it? 

Many times I'm interrupted that I have to   download  yet another update to the player , assuming I remembered to only connect with IE on my XP box  ( hates 2k and FF all bullshit restrictions for DRM purposes). So now I have the new player,  let's watch.. nope let's confirm that I want to watch, thank you. Now let's watch, oops  am I REALLY sure that I want to watch this..   YES again I'd like to watch this. Only now does the video start. If I go away for a while, you know pausing the program it often takes me through this again. It's free, thankfully ,as an add -on but there's no way I consider such to be worth paying for.  

And that's more likely the issue on all occasions  Non licensed material  has a high cost in time learning how to obtain it.  Licensed material has a high cost in  terms of jumping through the hoops to provide an environment it wants to live in ,  right device, right DRM, right account to purchase it on  and next to no say in what you do with it once it's arrived.  I can't watch my netflix on a plane, in the car or on a non Windows system.

Both options suck.  Thief,  or treated like one..  some ethical codes wouldn't make a distinction.  Yours?