IT sector news
Illegal downloads cost UK £120 billion a year
5/6/2009New research has revealed that seven million people use illegal files in the UK, causing major losses to the economy.
The report, "Copycats? Digital Consumers in the on-line age", was commissioned by the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property. It analysed the online behaviour of UK consumers and the potential impact on government policy and business. The report is the first to examine evidence from across the copyright industries and across all age ranges.
The research found that around 1.3 million people used shared content on a peer-to-peer network at midday on a weekday. If each of these downloaded just one item a day, there would be 4.73 billion downloads each year. This would amount to £120 billion of content being consumed for free each year.
"We know that the copyright industries in the UK are suffering huge losses due to illegal downloading," said David Lammy, Minister of State for Intellectual Property. "It is important that we understand how online consumer behaviour impacts on the UK economy and the future sustainability of our copyright industries."
With the new generation of broadband, 200 mp3 files can be downloaded in five minutes at 50 mega bytes per second. A DVD can be delivered in three minutes and the complete digitised works of Charles Dickens in less than five minutes.
