Illegal UK movie downloads on the up

It has been reported that the number of illegal movie downloads in the UK has increased by a massive thirty percent in the space of the last five years.

With so many people now having access to high speed broadband services the issue over illegal file sharing and downloads has become a major issue over recent years, causing problems for the entertainment industry due to loss of profits and creating huge controversy.

New figures have been released recently showing that in the past five years alone the number of illegal movie downloads in the UK has shot up by around thirty percent. The research was carried out by the internet consultancy firm Envisional. Last year the top five box office hits are said to have been downloaded around 1.4 million times.

Dr David Price, who was involved in the research spoke about the possible reasons for the increase, stating: “We’ve seen increases in technology like faster broadband. The methods of piracy have become easier, with quicker downloads and easier to find content. We have a generation online now who aren’t really bothered about downloading things illegally. Finally it’s an issue of availability – there’s a lot of American content which a lot of people are desperate to download that they can’t get hold of legitimately.”

One illegal downloader didn’t see anything wrong with what he was doing even if it meant losses for the entertainment industry. He said: “I think in comparison to the money they make it’s a drop in the ocean. Also, what I’m actually doing is providing people with new jobs. With all these ISPs that are producing super fast broadband we [illegal downloaders] are actually helping create those jobs.”

Do you think faster broadband will mean more illegal downloads?

Source – BBC