Music file-sharing falls by 50%

[zombywoof]

Peer-to-peer file-sharing activity has dropped by half in Europe, following the legal proceedings brought against Napster.
Latest reports from Jupiter MMXI indicate that since the Napster boom in February, the reach of file-sharing sites across the European audience has fallen from 16% to just 7.6%.

http://www.newmediazero.com/nmz/story.asp?id=229963

Just wondering. For those of you who live in Europe, is this really the case. Has legal issues made p2p file sharing more difficult and is perhaps being driven back underground, or is it that there are so many p2p apps out there that the sharing community is just spread out using different networks, or has the phenomenon of filesharing waned a bit since it is so common these days?

[Stoepsel]

I don't think it's the legal issues that are keeping European users from p2p file sharing. Napster had all the hype and even media coverage. So everyone knew that Napster was out there and it was the thing to use.

Now, with Napster being history, I'd guess that the mainstream PC user in Europe doesn't really know that p2p is strong as ever and that there is such a wealth of applications out there that meet your file sharing needs.

Any other opinions?

Stoepsel, Germany

[indiana_jones]

since i started with p2p a month ago - mine rose to 1000%
indy

[ranger121]

I don't think that any legal issue is going to change the way that the majority either here in Europe or anywhere in the World is going to think about file sharing.

There is still the thought that huge corporations are making vast sums of money from the downtrodden underclass whether it be Microshaft with the overpriced XP Pro system upgrade (now available from SIXX for $3.50 p&p) or any record label pumping out shovelware at £13.50 per CD.

I think people have gone through the initial "Oh, I can get anything I want off the Internet - so I'll download any old trash that's going" to a much more selective search; instead of downloading anything and everything they now download just what they want.

What the article doesn't say is whether what is available has decreased: I don't think that it has, rather the opposite.

[MikeHunt]

I wonder how this statistic is arrived at?
What is the source - of the data (not the report)?

And how can they tell exactly who is downloading what on a country by country basis?

I would be willing to bet filesharing is indeed up - everywhere, no matter what they say!

[Smoketoomuch]

or is it that there are so many p2p apps out there that the sharing community is just spread out using different networks

I think this is the case. But then, I know that our old librarian used Napster, but since it is shut down, not using anything in its stead. I use p2p only for half a year now. I don't know if the rise or fall of filesharing can be measured in any way. I think there are many who used napster (as it was said, media coverege, etc.) who are not comp. literate in the sense that they begin searching for alternate apps the moment napster no longer is available. But then, there must be a huge number of newcomers to different p2p networks that might cover, even exceed the loss...

[TankGirl]

Originally posted by MikeHunt
I wonder how this statistic is arrived at?
What is the source - of the data (not the report)?

This quote from the same story shows that the figures do not reflect what is going on in filesharing - i.e. how much people use their p2p clients and how much they share and download on them - but rather how often they visit the websites of the well-known p2p vendors.

Despite the fact that legal restrictions have forced Napster to offer only a restricted service, it remains the most popular music destination in Europe, with a 4.7% reach. It's followed by Audiogalaxy (3%), Musiccity Morpheus (2.2%), Netbroadcaster (1.7%) and MP3.com (1.5%).

Just recently we read how a million copies of Kazaa software were downloaded from Download.com alone in a single week after Morpheus got into trouble, with another million downloads for the close competition. That tells quite a different story about the popularity of filesharing.

- tg

[theflaco]

Despite the fact that legal restrictions have forced Napster to offer only a restricted service, it remains the most popular music destination in Europe, with a 4.7% reach.

4.7%? of what?

Defunct P2P?

or points it to the ppl who still use Napster.exe ie w/Napigator?

I don´t know how it is in Euroland, but in Sweden filesharing (or as they say here) music pirating IS going strong!!

theflaco

[Marius]

This European's file-sharing activities have decreased because thanks to Napster and Audiogalaxy he has so many data CDs of MP3s that it will take him years to burn them all to audio CDs.

It's almost shameful to admit it, but even with the help of the excellent All Music Guide I just can't think of damned thing I want to download.

Marius

[JackSpratts]

Originally posted by Marius

It's almost shameful to admit it, but even with the help of the excellent All Music Guide I just can't think of damned thing I want to download.

Marius

a lot of us are thinking the same thing but you're the first one i've actually heard say it. of course with hundreds of thousands of good songs still left to discover it will be years before i get them all but it's sure getting a lot harder coming up with the titles. amazing isn't it? i never thought i'd see the day when i actually got all the songs that've been sitting on my wish list for years.

still, even tho' that article won't display, i don't believe europeans have slowed their downloading to any great degree. actually, i think the vast majority of people worldwide (not just teens) have never downloaded anything from a p2p. for instance there are 6 billion people on the planet with at least a billion in the middle class economically, but there's just a million using the biggest p2p - fasttrack, at any given time. just wait 'till they all get into it. talk about tunes - think about that for a minute: a billion people sharing files at the same time!. there's a thought.

And then one day the other five billion jump in.

wow.

- js.

[Xman]

I can't speak for the whole of europe, but i doubt that P2P sharing has decreased significantly. It's true that napster was a real phenomenon here, but after its demise, people just switched over. Looking around, though, I think people here in belgium have less P2P programmes on their pc's, mostly the most known ones like kazaa/grokster or audiogalaxy.
It should also be pinted out that some ISP's put limits on bandwith usage; mine has a 15 GB per month limit.

And lastly, FTP servers are also very popular here.