SEOUL (AFP) — Nearly half the Internet users in South Korea -- one of the world's most wired nations -- illegally download a full-length movie a week, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The poll of 2,358 people, aged from 15 to 49, showed 47.3 percent had downloaded feature films through file-sharing sites by paying nothing or less than 100 won (11 cents) per film during the past year.

The margin of error in the survey conducted by the Korean Film Council is plus or minus 2.0 percentage points, Yonhap news agency reported.

It found that a typical movie pirate has downloaded 54.5 movies per year, or more than one a week.

Almost a third cited affordability as a reason for pirating movies, while 21 percent mentioned time flexibility.

Of those who claimed never to have pirated movies, 28 percent said it was too complicated, while 18 percent said they were worried about computer viruses. Only 12 percent said they did not want to infringe copyrights.

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