Piracy websites attract billions of visits

[ElNino]

A study by anti-fraud firm MarkMonitor has offered a snapshot into the changing nature of online piracy.

It monitored illegal traffic levels on 43 file-sharing sites and found that they generated more than 53 billion visits per year.

The top three - RapidShare.com, Megavideo.com and Megaupload.com - generated more than 21 billion visits.

Such sites are becoming as popular as peer-to-peer methods of accessing illegal content.

Source:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12163161

Text based on study made by anti-fraud firm MarkMonitor, here's the report:

http://www.markmonitor.com/download/...ort_110111.pdf

ElNino Reviewed by ElNino on 13th Jan 2011. Piracy websites attract billions of visits Source: Text based on study made by anti-fraud firm MarkMonitor, here's the report: Rating: 5

[Mr Happy]

While the vast majority of that is most likely warez related their is no proof that any of those visits are warez related and from a legal point of view they have to be presumed legit. That study is presuming that everyone who uses a file host uses it for illegal purposes.

Gotta love technicalities


EDIT:

"In this study, MarkMonitor used data based on Alexa."

Most people here will now know that their data is highly inacurate. People who use warez sites are far more likely to have the alexa toolbar installed that than eg. an expecting mother looking up baby products resulting in greatly inflated and inaccurate results for file hosts.

[bxflow]

MU+MV ... What a combo

[DoctorX]

MU+MV ... What a combo

and this is a good turn of katz.cd

[Kedzi]

Megavideo is the leader for films

[ElNino]

You are right Mr. Happy. Even this guy Mulligan says it in the article:

Mark Mulligan, an analyst at research firm Forrester, points out that the numbers of visits does not necessarily equate to the number of downloads of illegal material.

Their study is nonsense. The article seems to be far more interesting read than study itself. Look at this for example:

Illegal file-sharing is becoming incredibly complex and it is becoming over-burdensome to try and police it.

Good work guys!

[-saMmy-]

hmm good news for warez people