Study: Piracy almost 20 percent of total internet traffic in U.S.

Companies hurt by copyright infringement and eager to strike back face a Herculean challenge: putting a name and face on perpetrators. The anonymity bequeathed by the internet is often a God-send to those who pirate movies, music and video games. While connecting names and faces to the accused proves difficult, a new study – requested by NBC Universal and researched by British firm Envisional – attached a succinct number to the amount of piracy perpetuated across both the U.S. and worldwide internet.

According to Envisional’s 56-page study, titled “An Estimate of Infringing Use of the Internet,” 17.5% of U.S. internet traffic contains ties to piracy, including but not limited to BitTorrent sites. That’s compared to the global average of 23.8%.

Some may believe the numbers are inflated or misleading. Envisional’s research was commissioned by a major content provider after all. The possibility of conflicting interests is obvious. However, the research firm stands by its assertion that nearly a quarter of global internet traffic has roots in piracy and copyright infringement, adding in a recent tweet, “The 23.8% of likely infringing traffic is actually excluding any pornography. It would likely be higher if porn was included.”

In addition, the report estimates “nearly two-thirds of all content shared on bittorrent is copyrighted and shared illegitimately.” The firm’s research leads to the appraisal of BitTorrent as “the most used file sharing protocol worldwide.” It goes on to break down the alleged illegitimate activity across numerous file-sharing avenues – from eDonkey and Gnutella to Usenet groups.

You’ll find the entire 56-page PDF document here. (via PaidContent.org)