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A new study published by the University of Rennes shows that piracy has actually increased by about 3% after the introduction of France's new three-strikes law. The law bans users from the Internet after they are found to have been downloading pirated content for the third time.
The study wanted to find out the habits of downloaders before and after the law change, and they did find some noticeable changes. Since the laws only cover P2P downloads, the study found users migrated to HTTP download services such as Rapidshare or streaming services. As such, P2P usage was down, but there was still an overall increase.
The study also found that 50% of those downloading pirated content also made purchases online. If three strikes is successful in banning these users, revenue loss could be substantial for the music and movie industries that are increasingly dependent on online services.
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The study wanted to find out the habits of downloaders before and after the law change, and they did find some noticeable changes. Since the laws only cover P2P downloads, the study found users migrated to HTTP download services such as Rapidshare or streaming services. As such, P2P usage was down, but there was still an overall increase.
The study also found that 50% of those downloading pirated content also made purchases online. If three strikes is successful in banning these users, revenue loss could be substantial for the music and movie industries that are increasingly dependent on online services.
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