Napster dead? File-Swapping's Bigger Than Ever!

The music industry has failed. Their strategy to close down file swapping services hasn't worked. It took them 15 months and tens of millions of dollars to close down the Napster Service... and the result? People just shared more and more files.

While the Recording Industry Association of America and the five major recording companies have successfully hobbled Napster - which only recently represented the Internet's music-swapping zeitgeist - Napster-style file-swapping has actually started to rise, according to the report by Webnoize, the Cambridge, Mass.-based digital entertainment intelligence company.

Webnoize said today that 3.05 billion digital files were shared between Internet users in August. That compares to 2.79 billion files traded in February, when Napster was at its peak.

Meanwhile, the sizes of those files suggest that it is not just music that is being exchanged for free these days: movies and software programs are riding the light now as well, according to a Webnoize analyst.

As we all know people stopped using Napster, and start using other programs like IMesh, Bearshare and KaZaa. The close down of Napster did not stop people. Also many Napster substitutes have far more advanced features then Napster itself (like resume, multiple download etc).

This study done by Webnoize also indicates that the sharing of other types of files like movies and programs is on the rise. The average size of a swapped file was 4.8 mb. It is now 5.2 mb. Power to the people!

Source: newsbytes