Copyright Theft Accounts for Large Percentage of Internet Use

Los Angeles – According to a recent study by NBC, piracy makes up about 25 percent of global internet traffic.

BitTorrent, the free, open-source file-sharing application, is responsible for almost half of the 23.8 percent of the “digital theft” happening on the Internet. According to the study, infringing cyber locker sites made up 5.1 percent and illegal video streaming sites 1.4 percent. Peer-to-peer networks and file-sharing applications accounted for the rest. The unauthorized downloads consist primarily of movies, music, television shows, and video games.

As music piracy skyrocketed on illegal networks, legal alternatives have also flourished. Itunes, launched by Apple in 2003, offers music downloads at $.99 per file. Other sites such as Spotify offer free, advertising-supported streams. Customers who wish to avoid the ads must pay a fee. The music industry admits that the revenue from these legal sites cannot match the revenue from CD sales, but realizes the piracy will never go away.

Similarly, legal movie downloading is now also going mainstream. Legal alternatives and the lawsuits being filed by music and movie companies are likely to slow, but not completely stop, the illegal downloading.