Films 'fuel online file-sharing'

File-sharing is booming, with people downloading millions of files despite efforts by the entertainment industry to stop the practice, say experts.

Films and other files larger than 100MB are becoming the most requested downloads on networks around the world, said UK net analysts CacheLogic. It measures peer-to-peer traffic on the networks of internet service providers. It estimates that at least 10 million people are logged on to a peer-to-peer (P2P) network at any time.

"Video has overtaken music," CacheLogic founder and chief technology officer Andrew Parker told BBC News Online. The firm has come up with its picture of file-sharing by inspecting activity deep in the network rather than just at the ports. It found that file-sharing is very much alive and well, despite claims from the music industry that it is declining.

Read the article: www.bbc.co.uk