STUDY FINDS 97.2% OF BITTORRENT FILES ARE INFRINGING
Approximately 60% of popular torrents are illegal movies
- 20Sep 2011
Sydney: A new report released on 13 September has found that 97.2% of the most popular torrents are infringing copyright. The report also concludes that approximately 60% of popular torrents were infringing movie torrents.
The report entitled “Determining Infringing Content on BitTorrent Networks: Enhancing Sampling and Detecting Fake Files”, was conducted by the Internet Commerce Security Laboratory (ICSL) at the University of Ballarat.
The key findings of the report are:
• 97.2% of the most popular ‘real’ torrents [ie.not faked files] are copyright infringing
• Approximately 60% of popular torrents are movie based content
• 50% of popular torrents appear to be faked files, either malware or incorrect files
• 97.9% of BitTorrent use in ICSL samples is nefarious in nature, either faked files
copyright infringing or criminally infringing
Neil Gane, Executive Director of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) welcomed the release of the study: “This report verifies conclusively that BitTorrent is used extensively for the illegal distribution and viewing of copyrighted movies and television shows. Indeed, approximately 60% of the popular torrents are movies – all of which are infringing copyright. It would be appropriate to assume that most people would have very little reason to use BitTorrent sites other than to access infringing movies, TV shows and other copyrighted creative content.”
Antonia Barnard, a Producer on Stefan Elliott’s new feature film A Few Best Men, said: “Contrary to the myth that filmmakers enjoy the supposed promotional value of having their film illegally shared across the internet, my definite preference is that people choose to see and enjoy A Few Best Men as the filmmakers intended it to be seen – at the cinema and through legitimate channels. Only then do we stand a chance of repaying our investors and rewarding the hundreds of professionals who worked on the project.”
On 13 September, two Brisbane-based operators of an illegal movie BitTorrent tracker site were given 18-month suspended jail terms and received 3-year good behaviour bonds. The BitTorrent tracker site facilitated the sharing of copyright movies among its 400,000 international members, including thousands of ‘VIP Members’ who paid up to $10 a month for access to direct downloadable films and television shows. The court heard that the men had facilitated the transfer of over 10,000 terabytes of data, the equivalent of 14.3 millions of copies of movies and TV shows.
Paul Watters, Director of the ICSL said: “Users should be careful what they download. Our study found that 50% of torrents are fake files, likely to contain malicious malware in the form of a Trojan horse. Downloading torrents brings with them a whole range of unwelcome problems.”
The ICSL report follows the release on 12 September of a new study by Sycamore Research & Marketing that found that 72% of people surveyed said they would stop accessing illegal movies and television shows if their ISP notified them that they were in breach of their terms and conditions. 72% of respondents also said piracy was stealing/theft. The research summary can be viewed here
Determining Infringing Content on BitTorrent Networks: Enhancing Sampling and Detecting Fake Files can be viewed by clicking on the report below:
Contact AFACT
About AFACT
AFACT works closely with the film and television community, government and enforcement agencies to address copyright theft and protect the interests of its members.
In February 2011, IPSOS and Oxford Economics released a study on behalf of AFACT entitled “Economic Consequences of Movie Piracy in Australia”. The key findings, outlined below, indicated the scale of harm caused by movie piracy to the Australian economy in the 12 months up to July 2010.
- $1.37 billion in revenue was lost across the entire Australian economy.
- 6,100 jobs were forgone across the entire economy.
- Tax losses to movie piracy amounted to $193 million.
- Direct consumer spending losses to the movie industry, ie. cinema owners, local distributors, producers and retailers amounted to $575 million.
