The growth of Illegal File Sharing

Since the advent of Napster – a pioneering Peer to Peer file sharing internet service – there has been a rapid growth in illegal file sharing. Among the online communities, peer-to-peer file sharing networks like Gnutella, eDonkey and BitTorrent became very popular despite a number of litigations against facilitating services like Napster and other individual offenders. The impact of file-sharing on the core media industries was at dispute. Many studies opined that when all facts are taken into consideration, the file sharing is damaging to the core media industries. At the same time there is another opinion that file-sharing is made a scapegoat when ever there is a decline in sales. File-sharing can also be considered as a factor that promotes business and competition. What ever be the case, illegal file-sharing has become one of the main targets for Government as far as the Digital Britain Act is concerned.

Under the Digital Economy Act 2010, Ofcom has to monitor illegal file-sharing. Now the ambit of the regulator has been increased and a new range of duties have been assigned to Ofcom including duties relating to online copyright infringement. As a result, it became necessary for Ofcom to assess the extend of the use of internet to infringe copyright. For assessing the level of illegal file-sharing and peoples’ attitude towards illegal file-sharing, the regulator has to develop a coherent and representative measurement system.

Considering all facts like, the importance of the subject matter, the investment required and the use of the most appropriate and robust methodology, a successful competitive tender was conducted and Kentar Media were appointed to conduct a pilot survey. Kentar Media has to conduct the survey by making use of online, face-to-face interviewing and telephone methods in order to find out the most appropriate and robust methodology to monitor illegal file sharing.