The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) states that worldwide losses due to piracy stands at $18.2 billion.

Source: MPAA and L.E.K., “The Cost of Movie Piracy,” May 2006, (path: 2005 Piracy Data Summary), (accessed: November 24, 2006).

A study released in 2010 found that despite peer-to-peer networking downloading falling by 15 percent, the illegal downloading of content increased by 3 percent over the same period.

The study found that the cause of the increase was due to less people using P2P networks but instead downloading songs directly from websites and utilizing streaming content services.

Source:  Sebastian Seibt, “Study shows how downloaders skirt anti-piracy laws,” France 24, March 10, 2010.

Illegal downloading activity through the use of P2P networks decreased by 25 percent from the previous year in 2009.

Source:  Greg Sandoval, “P2P music use down; users may be stuffed,” CNet News, Media Maverick, March 1, 2010.

90 percent of the pirated copies new movie releases are camcorder recording, where a handheld video camera records the screen.

Source: TechNewsDaily, “3-D movies are harder to pirate — for now,” MSNBC, February 9, 2010.

There are an estimated 80,000 mobile phone brokers who upload pirated music, movies and ringtones onto memory cards in India.

Source:  Rhys Blakely, “India’s music millionaires turn to slumdog pirates for help,” Times, February 9,2010

Popular file-hosting website Rapidshare receives requests to remove pirated materials on their servers for about 1 to 2 percent of all files each day.

Source:  Randals Stross, “Will Books Be Napsterized? ,” New York Times, October 3, 2009.

Up to 50 percent of all DVDs sold in Ireland are estimated to be pirated copies, according to the Irish National Federation Against Copyright Theft (Infact).

Source:  Press Association, “50% of DVD sales ‘going to pirates’,” Google News, September 29, 2009.

NBC show Heroes was the most illegally downloaded show online, according to Big Champagne.

Below is the number of people who illegally downloaded the Top Ten Television shows in 2009:

Heroes; 54,562,012
Lost; 51,151,396
24; 34,119,093
Prison Break; 29,283,591
House; 26,277,954
Fringe; 21,434,755
Desperate Housewives; 21,378,412
Grey’s Anatomy; 19,916,775
Gossip Girl; 19,706,870
Smallville; 19,598,999

Below is the number of people who illegally downloaded the Top Ten Movies in 2009:

Watchmen; 16,906,452
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; 13, 133, 137
Yes Man; 13,038,364
Twilight; 11,632,645
Fast and Furious; 10,613,668
Gran Torino; 9,880,700
Marley and Me; 9,099,219
Slumdog Millionaire; 8,840,884
Bolt; 8,690,633
Australia; 8,628,012

Source: Rory Cellan-Jones, “File-sharers’ TV tastes revealed ,” BBC News, August 28, 2009.