Peer-to-peer file sharing has been under fire for several years because of the illegally copied media that is transmitted via the networks, but now a new form of piracy is catching the attention of the film and television industries.
Streaming video websites, such as Megavideo, are quickly growing into a larger threat to corporate profit margins than P2P networks due to the ease with which people are not only able to digitally capture and upload content, but also because of simple single-click accessibility that is much simpler than piecing together a torrent file.
Industry analysts are just beginning to realize the impact of the issue. One study showed that between July and August of this year, the number of websites streaming copyright infringing content increased by 42%.
"It's not larger than peer-to-peer, but its growing faster," said Lawrence Low, an executive with BayTSP, a tech company that identifies unauthorized content online for entertainment industries. "Live streaming, in particular, is doubling in the last two years."
In addition to the unrestrained growth these streaming video sites have demonstrated, the financial implications of the issue seem to be nearly impossible for anyone to track. The US Government Accountability Office tried, but gave up in April because they were not able to base their numbers on anything other than assumptions about what consumers might have been purchasing.
Some companies have already produced software that can be enabled to automatically identify and block content that is determined to be a copyright violation. However, not all sites use such tools, and many will only agree to take down material once notified that it is in violation.
So now we have a new game of technological cat and mouse to play in the MPAA and government effort to fight piracy. This particular game, however, seems to be much more of a challenge than the fight against P2P file sharing.
