Around 7 million broadband users in the UK download files illegally with content worth around £12 billion per year
In the UK there are around 7 million illegal downloaders according to a report from SABIP (Strategic Advisory Board For Intellectual Property Policy).
Part of the blame is being laid at the high speed broadband available, such as Virgin Media's fibre broadband which is capable of speeds up to 50Mb.
A 50Mb broadband connection can let users download 200 MP3 files in 5 minutes, a DVD in 3 minutes and the complete digitised works of Charles Dickens in less than 10 minutes.
The value of these illegal downloads is not small either, for one of the file sharing networks it is thought that about £12 billion worth of content is shared for free each year which is about £32 million per day!
It is not just music and films that are affected by this, e-books, software, TV programmes and games are also included.
With some broadband users receiving warning letters with regards to illegal downloading the warning is there for users to only use legal downloads, but many say that is sometimes hard to tell which are legal and which are illegal on the internet with so many different sources available.
Author: Mark Ward Copyright: BroadbandWatchdog.co.uk - NetMediaUK.com
