Study: 24 percent of Web traffic involves piracy

Almost a quarter of all Web traffic involves digital theft of some kind, according to a new study commissioned by NBC Universal.

“Bottom line, according to this new study, nearly one-quarter of the traffic on the Internet involves the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material such as movies, TV shows, music and video games," said Motion Picture Association of America President Bob Pisano.

"Whether you call it piracy, digital theft, illegal downloading or unauthorized streaming, it’s stealing the creative work of others."

The study, authored by David Price, head of piracy intelligence for the brand monitoring firm Envisional, claims 17 percent of U.S. Web traffic involves some type of copyright infringement, with the file-sharing service BitTorrent accounting for more than half (9 percent).

"We understand that some people may use some of our technologies in ways that represent a risk to certain copyright holders, but certainly no more so than other technologies," said BitTorrent chief strategist Shahi Ghanem in a statement.

"Like all of these — BitTorrent technologies have fundamentally transformed the Internet and user behavior and they are widely used for perfectly legitimate purposes."

Business groups such as the U.S Chamber of Commerce have argued online piracy costs the U.S. economy billions along with thousands of creative jobs. The Chamber pointed to the study as further evidence of the need for a crackdown on online piracy.

"This new crop of studies demonstrates the sickening scope of online theft of intellectual property," said Steve Tepp, senior director of Internet counterfeiting and piracy at the Chamber's Global Intellectual Property Center.

"Surely we can all agree that these websites have no place in a legitimate online market. It is time for Congress to act to protect American jobs, creativity, and consumers."