P2p use increases, at least with muTorrent

The use of p2p software to share copyrighted material does not seem to have diminished in 2009, despite the increase of legal alternatives and recent court rulings to the disadvantage of file-sharing platforms like The Pirate Bay and Mininova.

Although reliable data are lacking about the size of the complete file sharing landscape in 2009, different sources report that there are no signs of decline. We reported previously about a study commissioned by the British music industry that reported usage of torrent platforms to have stabilised in 2009. And in an article on Torrentfreak, the developers of muTorrent state that the number of unique monthly users of their software has nearly doubled from 28 million in November 2008 to 52 million twelve months later.

If that sizeable increase in use of muTorrent is representative for other torrent platforms, the interesting question surfaces where these users are coming from? The rising supply of legal alternatives and the increasingly pro-copyright attitudes with policy makers and courts is mostly a Western affair. Is that where the new users come from? Probably not. Broadband penetration doesn’t grow that much anymore in these regions. It’s more likely that the growth comes mostly from emerging economies like Russia, Brazil, China and India, where Internet access growth and copyright enforcement doesn’t have the highest priority.

29-12-2009