film news

Technology speed making illegal downloads easy

With the roll out of super fast broadband in most of the UK, the average connection speed continues to rise, and also, the ability to download data faster. What will happen to the film industry when it becomes so quick an easy to download high quality movies from websites?

There is a big concern in the film industry that because film and TV episodes are widely available online illegally, consumers are also able to get them faster and more easily. There is no current mechanism to block illegal downloads in the UK, and the film industry is scrambling to protect UK made content.

This past week Google also announced a new 'cloud' service, that allows people to store digital files online, with a standard 5GB account. Will this also encourage illegal file sharers and downloaders to put copies on the service?

Illegal downloads in the UK

  • 30% increase in illegal downloads from 2006-2011
  • £170 million loss every year
  • Top 5 TV shows downloaded more than 1 million times each

Source BBC & FACT / 2011 Report

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