About one third of the UK Internet users who stream or download music, TV and films have downloaded them illegally at least once in the quarter to the end of January 2013, with pirated downloads reaching 400 million during the period, according to new report from Ofcom.
Ofcom’s latest online copyright infringement tracker report revealed that digital piracy of music, film, TV, books, video games and computer software increased during the period compared to the earlier quarter.
The Intellectual Property Office funded report found that 18% of Internet users aged 12 and over accessed digital entertainment media through an illegal means, up from 16% in the earlier quarterly report.
According to the report, the increase in piracy corresponds with an overall rise in the proportion of internet users accessing digital media content from 57% to 60% during the surveyed period.
In addition, the report reveals that the about 59% users accessing content illegally were male, and 68% were under 34 years old.
According to Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), the software that is most often installed without a license in the UK is Microsoft Office (24%) and Windows (24%), followed by Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator (16%) and Creative Suite (10%).
