Volume II

Issue : 15: July 22, 2004

• U.S. District Court Limits State Attempts to Govern VoIP
• Leaving Messages May Create Privacy Law Liability
• U.S. Court Dismisses Appeal on Copyright in Online Product Descriptions
• Canadian Recording Industry Association Appeals Court Ruling Regarding Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
• Microsofts Antispam Strategy Reaps US$4 Million Judgment
• File Sharing On the Rise
• U.S. Court Asserts Jurisdiction over Copyright Infringement Claim

Home > Volume II > Issue 15: July 22, 2004 > File Sharing On the Rise

File Sharing On the Rise

Several recent reports suggest that file sharing over the Internet is more popular than ever with users downloading twice as many copyrighted films, games and music files as they did a year ago. This despite legal action taken by the music industry against a number of frequent network users and the availability of legitimate music downloads through sources such as Apple's iTunes.

One of the reports, by technology firm CacheLogic, suggests that while the legal action taken by the music industry prompted many users to stop frequenting the most popular networks, it did not stop them from file-sharing altogether. Many previously lesser-known networks now draw much of the traffic away from sites such as Kazaa, creating new headaches for opponents of file sharing in the process.

In addition to the frequency of downloading, the size of the average download has also increased with the majority of files passing through most networks now exceeding 100 megabytes. This suggests that users are as likely to download larger movie and software files, as they are smaller music files.

According to the report by BigChampagne, a firm that tracks file-sharing networks, the number of music files available for free trading is also on the rise. The report found that approximately 1 billion songs are currently available, an increase of 180 million from last year.

For additional information, visit:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040713/80/exvnl.html