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Piracy drives billions of visits to file locker websites

Written by James Delahunty @ 11 Jan 2011 12:51 User comments (6)

Piracy drives billions of visits to file locker websites Anti-fraud firm MarkMonitor has said that file locker and easy file-sharing sites like RapidShare, Megaupload and Megavideo, receiving enormous amounts of traffic due to piracy.
The firm monitored traffic levels to illegal files on 43 file sharing sites and found that it amounted to about 53 billion visits per year. RapidShare, Megaupload and Megavideo alone received more than 21 billion visits to illegal content stored on their servers.

"The numbers are staggering," said Charlie Abrahams, vice president of MarkMonitor. The study was carried out following requests made by the US Chamber of Commerce. The figures put file locker services right up there with file sharing networks.

"These upload sites index their files. It is very easy and convenient," Mark Mulligan, an analyst at research firm Forrester, said. "Upload sites, alongside instant messaging and blogs, are now on a par with peer-to-peer sites when it comes to piracy."



Copyright holders have attempted to address the problem by taking on RapidShare in several countries. RapidShare scored a victory in Germany this week when the Higher Regional Court of Dusseldorf ruled that it does not have to install filters demanded by rights' holders, and found that the Swiss company was already taking reasonable measures against piracy.

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6 user comments

111.1.2011 22:19

going to rent renting videos from now on, I mostly use megaupload that's why

212.1.2011 17:37

i conducted my own study and found that, 99.9% of pirated materiel is available from Redbox,Blockbuster,Netflix, and slew of other video rental places.

We have come to the conclusion, that to stop piracy hollywood must close its doors,Forever.

313.1.2011 11:37

Wow people r really fast on news these days.. ! :/

413.1.2011 11:37

Wow people r really fast on news these days.. ! :/

513.1.2011 15:57

hotfile rulez right now, others r 2 slow.

615.1.2011 15:17

Priced Out: Well, bring down the silly prices of music albums, and blu-rays. I'm very selective over purchases and mainly rent all my movies. Otherwise I watch them via Sky HD.

Also great to hear more artists/studios going indie.

Greed gets you nowhere.

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