Seven million use illegal downloads
Friday, 29 May 2009 12:00 AM
By politics.co.uk
Seven million people use illegal files in the UK causing major losses to the economy, new research revealed today.
The report commissioned by the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property (SABIP) showed how large-scale illegal downloading caused by general confusion over online copyright law is costing the economy tens of billions of pounds.
Around 1.3 million people used shared content on a peer-to-peer network at midday on a weekday, the report found.
If each person connected on this network downloaded just one item per day, it would result in 4.73 billion downloads each year.
This, in turn, would amount to £120 billion of content being consumed for free, each year, and not flowing in the UK economy.
"We know that the copyright industries in the UK are suffering huge losses due to illegal downloading," said David Lammy, minister of state for intellectual property.
He added: "It is important that we understand how on-line consumer behaviour impacts on the UK economy and the future sustainability of our copyright industries.
"Illegal downloading is not an issue confined by national boundaries. I am sure other EU States and their copyright industries will find this report of use in the development of policy."
The authors of the report found that 200 mp3 files can be downloaded in five minutes with the new generation of broadband at 50 mega bytes per second (mbs).
A DVD can be delivered in 3 minutes and the complete digitised works of Charles Dickens in less than 5 minutes.
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