Andre Yoskowitz
12 Feb 2012 22:07
Internet consulting firm DeepField Networks did some digging and it seems that the high-profile take down of major cyberlocker Megaupload has done nothing to affect global piracy.
The firm analyzed Web traffic from six companies, says BGR, "that provide the storage facilities responsible for roughly 80 percent of all file-sharing traffic" and found that piracy is still alive and well, despite triumphant statements from the US government and trade groups like the MPAA.
In the days leading up to the shutdown, Megaupload accounted for about 35 percent of all file-sharing downloads. When a global raid took the site down last month, the entire Internet saw traffic fall about 2 percent. The US DOJ had certainly caught their big fish in the ongoing fight against copyright infringement.
However, within days, the traffic had recovered as users moved on to Rapidsahre, Putlocker, FileFactory and MediaFire, says DeepField, completely negating the takedown.
What will be the main impact of the MegaUpload takedown? DeepField concludes: "Well, file sharing has not gone away. It did not even decrease much in North America. Mainly, file sharing became staggeringly less efficient. Instead of terabytes of North America MegaUpload traffic going to US servers, most file sharing traffic now comes from Europe over far more expensive transatlantic links."
Read the report here: http://blog.deepfield.net/