NEW STUDY ON INTERNET PIRACY BRANDED “BOGUS”

A new study by the Internet Commerce Security Laboratory claiming that virtually all (99.7 percent) files available via BitTorrent websites are pirated has been vigorously disputed by TorrentFreak.com, which tracks online usage of peer-to-peer technology and reports on developments in the BitTorrent world. Calling the conclusions of the study “bogus,” TorrentFreak claimed on Saturday that such studies are “pushed” by anti-piracy groups like the Motion Picture Association of America and “taken for granted” by the news media. “Mistake after mistake is made in the report and conclusions are drawn based on painfully inaccurate data and methodologies,” the website alleged, citing several examples and concluding that “it is hard to believe that these figures are even remotely accurate, and they aren’t.” However, it conceded, “we’re not trying to argue that the majority of the torrents are legit.”