Internet research company Envisional has revealed that illegal downloading of films in the UK grew nearly 30% in five years, according to a report by the BBC.
Such illegal downloading of films is estimate to cost hundreds of millions to the film industry as well as thousands of job losses.
A study by Envisional found that the top five box office movies were illegally downloaded in the UK for 1.4 million times in last year, said the report. TV shows have also not far behind.
Research lead Dr David Price said improvement in technology, easy availability and lack of concern among the new generation are reasons for the growth of online piracy.
Price said, "We’ve seen increases in technology like faster broadband."
"The methods of piracy have become easier, with quicker downloads and easier to find content.
"We have a generation online now who aren’t really bothered about downloading things illegally.
"Finally it’s an issue of availability – there’s a lot of American content which a lot of people are desperate to download that they can’t get hold of legitimately."
Kieron Sharp of the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) told the BBC, "Research for the government has shown that film piracy costs the industry about half a billion pounds a year."
"About a third of that is due to illegal downloading of film and TV content.
"Clearly that is unacceptable."
Price says that the only way, copyright owners can fight piracy is to "compete with piracy and get their content out there themselves as easily and as quickly and as cheaply as possible."
