A scientific study has estimated that just 100
internet users are ultimately responsible for publishing most (almost 67%)
of all the "illegal" (unlawful) copyright content (music, tv
shows, movies, games and applications) on public P2P (BitTorrent)
file sharing networks. The primary motivation appears to be money and the study
identifies several broadband ISPs, including one UK provider (Virgin Media), as unwittingly playing a
big part.
The study, which set out to examine the behaviour of the
users who are responsible for publishing over 55,000 files on the two main
portals (Mininova and The Pirate Bay), was carried out by Spain's
Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M). The content they posted ultimately accounted for
"75 percent of [all] the downloads" (i.e. by end-users).
Hundreds of online
music services licensed by record labels in recent years have done little to
stem rampant illegal downloading, which is pushing down the value of recorded
music. Digital piracy
is still rising along with websites and forums linking to content accessible by
piracy services, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said
in its annual report today. Global revenue from music via the Internet and
mobile phones rose 6 percent to $4.6 billion, accounting for 29 percent of record companies’ sales.
The rate of growth was less than 2009’s 12 percent increase. Record
companies have been licensing online music services such as Spotify and Rdio
and relying on premium ads around online videos to help make up for a drop in
CD sales as more physical shops shutter and online piracy shows no signs of
waning. Brazil and Spain
are among countries with the highest proportion of people visiting unlicensed
music sites, and the majority of content distributed on file-sharing networks
infringes copyright, the IFPI said.
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