#illegal filesharing

[musicblob]

After 15 Years, the Pirate Bay Still Can’t Be Killed - MEL Magazine

In a quiet corner of my high school’s study room in 2009, I booted up my busted laptop while making sure nobody could peer over...

The Pirate Bay lives today, still hosting torrents that have survived for 15 years. Part of the reason for the site’s longevity may simply be because it hasn’t been caught red-handed in a jurisdiction with tougher punishments, says Annemarie Bridy, a professor of law at the University of Idaho with extensive expertise on online piracy issues. “But part of the problem, too, is that there’s this legacy that The Pirate Bay has, where it’s grown into something more than the people who first operated the site,” Bridy tells me. “It’s a phenomenon. And there are people who are just ideologically committed to the operation of The Pirate Bay. For as long as that’s the case, it’s going to be very, very hard to shut down.”

[devotedlyeclecticpirate-blog]

Internet piracy falls to record lows amid rise of Spotify and Netflix

Internet streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix have resulted in online piracy falling to its lowest rate in years, an official report claims.

Internet streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix have resulted in online piracy falling to its lowest rate in years, an official report claims.

Research commissioned by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), which is tasked with fighting copyright infringement, found that 15pc of internet users illegally accessed films, music and other material between March and May.

This is down from 18pc a year ago and was the lowest recorded rate in the five years the study has been carried out.

Meanwhile, 44pc of internet users are using exclusively legal means, up from 39pc at the end of 2015. The remaining 31pc did not download or stream any online content in the three-month period. The Minister for Intellectual Property, Baroness Neville Rolfe, said “consumers appear to be turning towards legitimate streaming en masse”.

The Telegraph article emphasizes how internet streaming services work in combating online piracy. It is interesting to see how effective these services really seem to be, especially in light of the statistics given therein.

The statistics are pretty convincing and the general opinion nowadays is that we are in the right direction in the war against piracy. But it never hurts to also consider the opposing arguments, so here is another article, which, although superficially, highlights the views of the Pirate-Bay co-founder Peter Sunde.

[avenuelive]

Can musicians use statistics on filesharing to plan more profitable tours? Evidence suggests that those who engage in illegal filesharing may actually be more likely to purchase or subscribe to artists they love.