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P2P piracy drops significantly following LimeWire shut down

Written by James Delahunty @ 27 Mar 2011 8:15 User comments (10)

P2P piracy drops significantly following LimeWire shut down The NPD Group reported earlier this week that P2P piracy in the United States declined significantly in 2010.
The market research firm said that the rate of users sharing pirated content on P2P networks dropped to 9 percent during 2010, down from 16 percent reported in 2007. This is a dramatic reversal in the trend of increasing Internet piracy over the last few years.

NPD argues that online piracy is not a fundamental problem for the media industries, because the rates are so low. That opinion clashes violently with the declaration in the IFPI's Digital Media 2010 report that the industry will struggle for its very survival unless piracy is dealt with. However, it mirrors a tone from Warner Music which estimated in a presentation to the FCC that only 13 percent of American's piracy music.

The record label said the actions are harmful, but admitted that pirates do spend money on content too and tend to "drive discovery for others."

The decline in P2P use is strongly linked to the shut down of LimeWire in late 2010. "Limewire was so popular for music file trading, and for so long, that its closure has had a powerful and immediate effect on the number of people downloading music files from peer-to-peer services and curtailed the amount being swapped," said Russ Crupnick, NPD analyst.



"In the past, we've noted that hard-core peer-to-peer users would quickly move to other Web sites that offered illegal music file sharing. It will be interesting to see if services like Frostwire and Bittorrent take up the slack left by Limewire, or if peer-to-peer music downloaders instead move on to other modes of acquiring or listening to music."

Tags: piracy P2P
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10 user comments

127.3.2011 20:35

A good pirate would've barely noticed that Limewire was even down

227.3.2011 20:42

Originally posted by shortybob:
A good pirate would've barely noticed that Limewire was even down
Never fear, for where one falls another 2 or 3 more is sure to take its place. It's an almost certainty.

327.3.2011 20:47

a good pirate will use google and youtube.

427.3.2011 20:50

A good pirate uses ******.

527.3.2011 21:33

They might have shown an immediate drop, but there's no reason to doubt that those limewire users have found a replacement by now. All these articles about that study are just hype.

The sad thing is that this shallow and poorly analyzed hype is used to justify anti-piracy groups currently going for domains and the gnutella network.

628.3.2011 03:22

In Other News:
REVENGE: Napster boss set to buy Metallica’s record label Warner Music Group.
http://goo.gl/fb/zU77O

728.3.2011 04:00
gussoldnews
Unverified new user

Originally posted by Mrguss:
In Other News:
REVENGE: Napster boss set to buy Metallica’s record label Warner Music Group.
http://goo.gl/fb/zU77O
Afterdawn posted that news a long ass time ago..search is your friend

828.3.2011 11:03

I guess options are not the reason, I personally have stop illegal downloads since Netflix and hulu are making media much more accessible, Pandora and slaker are taking care of my music needs


928.3.2011 13:43

Its also possible that a lot of these users on limewire were directed there through word of mouth, because of its simplicity of use similar to Kazaa and Napster. All those lost sheep now, having to resort to another similar proggy, and that's of course they can get directed to one. This report really doesn't surprise me, because most people who used limewire at all just simply didn't know better, or they didn't know a darn thing at all.

102.4.2011 14:14

Originally posted by statomike:
They might have shown an immediate drop, but there's no reason to doubt that those limewire users have found a replacement by now. All these articles about that study are just hype.

The sad thing is that this shallow and poorly analyzed hype is used to justify anti-piracy groups currently going for domains and the gnutella network.
Yes, you are right. The article is full of sh1t! I do believe piracy has seen better days but it will continue as long as media sells its product at unfair prices. A large portion of the pirates have stopped just because they want to quit while they are ahead. Every thing was wide open for years.

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