A recent survey indicates eight percent of consumers located in the United Kingdom, United States, France and Germany illegally download movies and other video content through the Internet.
The Futuresource Consulting survey discovered two-thirds of people in the UK who were asked responded to often or sometimes watching TV and video content online, with US consumers just behind. Around 15 percent of those file sharers are watching illegal content online, according to Futuresource, though legal video services are still growing.
"This widespread availability of illicit content presents a major obstacle to the development of online content services, and continues to heavily impact upon revenues, despite governments' and industry authorities' renewed attempts to tighten up the system," the Futuresource report indicates.
Video copyright holders are having a difficult time trying to stifle video piracy, especially as more consumers continue to adopt faster broadband Internet speeds. National governments are attempting to help groups like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), but it's certainly and uphill battle tha it looks like the copyright holders are losing.
England and France are both working on various legal bills and legislation that could ultimately disconnect file sharers who are accused of sharing copyrighted files. The MPAA and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) also are transitioning away from targeting file sharers so they can focus more on putting pressure on ISPs to stop users from sharing files.
How will the companies tackle video file sharing? Will putting pressure on the ISPs to disconnect service actually work?
