James Delahunty
8 Jul 2007 19:11
As time goes on, the number of file sharers is continuing to rise. While the numbers on the most popular P2P networks might be falling (or staying flat), interest in software such as BitTorrent is not failing to grow. As for those who have been casual music downloaders, BitTorrent - with a lot of support behind it - is starting to drag them towards downloading movies, including pre-release copies.
While movies have been available online for years and many millions of file sharers have been downloading them, the focus for many more is changing from music to movies and TV shows quickly as they discover BitTorrent and abandon the older, slower methods. The RIAA has tried to reduce the level of music sharing online, but even on the file sharing networks which have been hammered by lawsuits, the level stayed just about about flat over the past year.
"There have been years when we have seen double-digit percentage growth," Eric Garland, cofounder and CEO of BigChampagne, told Ars. "Compared to that, the last 12 months have been rather flat." BigChampagne notes that the average torrent had 817,588 people participating in May 2006, now that figure had jumped to 1,357,318 seeders and leechers, a growth of about 66%.
Music is also very popular on BitTorrent trackers, except the focus is on downloading full ripped albums and not just single tracks like on P2P networks. There is also a noticeable but small demand for HD content ripped from HD DVD and Blu-ray disc's on several popular BitTorrent trackers. BigChampagne has also noticed a rise in darknet activity but said it's difficult to get a holistic view of what's going on with "underground" networks.
Source:
Ars Technica