A recent study sheds light on just how many Americans break the law, and don’t even realize it.
Lawsuit.org found that 81 percent of 1,071 people in a focus group committed a minor offense within the past year, and the vast majority of those people — 96 percent — consider themselves “law-abiding” citizens.
The study shows that the most common infraction was jaywalking. According to findlaw.com, jaywalking is considered a misdemeanor carrying with it the possibility of a citation from police, which can result in a fine.
Secondly, the most popular offense was sharing your Netflix password, which 27 percent of study participants have done. Sharing your password with someone who is not paying for the account is technically illegal. This study showed that 45 percent of people were unaware that it was illegal to share their Netflix password.
The law with Netflix is a little bit more complicated, as sharing a Netflix password with someone outside of the family is technically a violation of the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, CBS reported. Although companies aren’t cracking down on this yet, its something to note for the future.
Coming in at third place is pirating music or video content. The study shows that 24 percent of folks have done it. If you pirate video or music content, it is possible to be fined up $250,000 or one could face five years of jail time, according to RIAA.com. Nine percent of people had no clue that pirating music or video content was actually illegal.
And ever use a pseudonym? Forty-two percent of people were unaware that using a fake name online is technically illegal. It is also illegal to connect unsecured wi-fi, and about 40 percent of survey participants were also unaware of this.
