Study Finds 0.3% of BitTorrent Files Definitely Legal

Andorin writes "It's common knowledge that the majority of files distributed over BitTorrent violate copyright, though the exact percentage is unclear. The Internet Commerce Security Laboratory of the University of Ballarat in Australia has conducted a study and found that 89% of files examined were in fact infringing, while most of the remaining 11% were ambiguous but likely to be infringing. Ars Technica summarizes the study: 'The total sample consisted of 1,000 torrent files—a random selection from the most active seeded files on the trackers they used. Each file was manually checked to see whether it was being legally distributed. Only three cases—0.3 percent of the files—were determined to be definitely not infringing, while 890 files were confirmed to be illegal. ' The study brings with it some other interesting statistics; out of the 1,000 files, 91 were pornographic, and approximately 4% of torrents were responsible for 80% of seeders. Music, movies and TV shows constituted the three largest categories of shared materials, and among those, zero legal files were found."

Comments

Princeton Study

[cappp]

In a similar Princeton study the numbers were a little different but the general point remained the same.

46% movies and shows (non-pornographic)
14% games and software
14% pornography
10% music
1% books and guides
1% images
14% could not classify

They ultimatly found approx. 1% to be legal.

The Princeton piece makes for an interesting read because they do a good job of breaking down their catagories and providing some detailed context. For instance, 53% of the porn was in English and 5% of the software was Spanish language. Just really rich data for anyone into this kind of analysis. The final paragraph on how they decided if content was illegal reads:

Our final assessment involved determining whether or not each file seemed likely to be copyright-infringing. We classified a file as likely non-infringing if it appeared to be (1) in the public domain, (2) freely available through legitimate channels, or (3) user-generated content. These were judgment calls on our part, based on the contents of the files, together with some external research. By this definition, all of the 476 movies or TV shows in the sample were found to be likely infringing. We found seven of the 148 files in the games and software category to be likely non-infringing—including two Linux distributions, free plug-in packs for games, as well as free and beta software. In the pornography category, one of the 145 files claimed to be an amateur video, and we gave it the benefit of the doubt as likely non-infringing. All of the 98 music torrents were likely infringing. Two of the fifteen files in the books/guides category seemed to be likely non-infringing.

Re:wow. talk about skew.

[bbqsrc]

This article explains why the above poster is correct.

Re:0 media legal

[cgenman]

I'm actually a little disheartened by the lack of legal torrent distribution. It's a great medium for getting your content out there, people! If you're doing a straight HTTP server for your files, you could be saving a lot on bandwidth (and helping people to get your content faster) by setting it up as a torrent.

Re:0 media legal

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

for example see Pioneer One.

Pioneer One

Hey thanks, never heard of it before but I'm now seeding the first episode.

And to add my own current favorite free movie to the list, check out Sita Sings the Blues - a free animated movie that Roger Ebert practically gushed over. It's available in a bunch of different formats, I'm currently seeding the 4GB 1080p matroska edition myself.