LONDON (Reuters) - The number of file-swapping, or peer-to-peer, Web sites, has grown more than five-fold in the past year, a study said on Monday, despite legal efforts by Hollywood, music companies and software firms to shut them down.
Peer-to-peer sites, including Kazaa and Morpheus Music City, have attracted millions of global users who trade all manner of files, primarily copyright-protected songs, films, software and computer games.
The record labels and Hollywood studios have made unsuccessful attempts to clamp down on the sites, which they claim are enabling a wave of mass consumer piracy that is eating into sales.
According to a new survey by U.S. technology firm Websense Inc., the number of peer-to-peer (P2P) sites totals nearly 38,000, up 535 percent in the past year.
Nearly one in three of the most popular applications downloaded off CNet's Download.com are for P2P services, the survey said.
The surge in P2P usage is impacting the workplace as employees increasingly use speedy corporate Internet connections to download songs and software, a potentially unlawful activity, Websense warned.
"Companies that look the other way may have copyright violations occurring in the workplace, and lawsuits are a potential outcome of such activity," Jennifer Kearns, an employment attorney at UK law firm Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison, said in a statement issued by Websense.
blah blah blah is all I have to say to this.:devil :devil
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(theonlybob)
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Do YOU Streamload?????? www.Streamload.com
That was inevitable, since sueing millions people dling from thier homes is practically ridiculus, the entertainment industry will go after coporations and universities that house the networks that workers and students are using to dl copyrigted material.
You sue Joe Blow you get pile dirty laundry, you sue a corporation you get punative damages.
So it all comes down to the all mighty doller... they only intellectual property worth protecting is the money making ones. :fire :hole :black
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Since its inception almost 30 years ago, the internet has been transformed from a primitive device for sharing thoughts and ideas, into a massive network where people pay to connect and read advertisements they don't want, while calling each other "asshats".
The music industries are actually helping the opposite cause, more and more people hear about the court battles, and are interested. They learn more, and soon they're a faithful file-sharing devotee. The lawsuits are just letting everyone know that file-sharing is out there, thus promoting flie-sharing popularity. As Eminem put it "No news is bad news"
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