Despite a recently publicized 18 percent jump in legal music sales following the launch of Ipred in Sweden, the Local is reporting that illegal file sharing is back in full force, reaching new record levels.
Stats from Swedish organization Netnod showed that Internet traffic in the entire country dropped 40 percent when Ipred went into effect in April, mainly due to a cutback in BitTorrent traffic.
TheLocal is reporting that Internet traffic is at all-time high now in the nation, although the numbers can hardly be considered set in stone at the moment.
“Spotify and the various television channels ‘Play’ sites haven’t yet released their statistics. There is guaranteed to be certain increase in file sharing, but it isn’t possible to tell exactly how much,” added researcher Kristoffer Schollin.
Anti-virus protection company McAfee also says that file-sharing sites have grown by over 300 percent since Ipred.
“Then you have the illegal video streaming sites, which aren’t file sharing in the traditional sense, but which play the same role for users. Watching a movie via a streaming video directly in your web browser is becoming more and more popular,” Schollin adds.
Result for: internet traffic
According to a report from network management vendor Arbor Networks, P2P is largely being replaced by streaming video. The report, prepared in cooperation with the University of Michigan, will be presented at an October 19 meeting of the North American Network Operators’ Group.
According to Craig Labovitz of Arbor Networks, “Globally P2P is declining and it is declining quickly.”
The report is based on data collected from ISPs aorund the world over a two year period.
Arbor says P2P traffic currently accounts for 18% of internet traffic now, which isn’t insignificant. But according to Labovitz it’s still a lot less than in 2007 when 40% of traffic was from P2P.
Result for: internet traffic
Torrent.is, the largest torrent Tracker in Iceland, is facing a permanent shutdown and the probability that it will have to pay restitution to copyright owners.
In November of 2007 Torrent.is received a preliminary injunction which eventually led to a shutdown of the site and a massive 50 percent drop in overall internet traffic in Iceland. Earlier this week, at the public hearing of the case, the plaintiffs asked for the monetary damages as well as a permanent shutdown of the site.
Snæbjörn Steingrímsson, an executive with SMAIS (the Icelandic MPAA) led the investigation and said his clients had lost “a few hundred million ISK” because of the site. At its peak, the site had 26,500 active users, all in Iceland to ensure fast connectivity between peers and seeds.
Svavar Kjarrval, the head administrator of Torrent.is feels he has a strong case though. “The plaintiffs are making an outrageous claim. They argue that website and domain owners should always be responsible for copyright violations of third parties. The case could set a dangerous precedent if the court agrees with their claims.”
We will keep you updated.
