http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100724/23574510351.shtmlFor years upon years, we've seen the press parrot the "findings" of various entertainment industry "studies" about copyright or file sharing, and usually, as you dig into the details, you discover that the report's methodology is laughable. You would think that, with the GAO highlighting how bogus most of these reports are, earlier this year, that the press would be a bit more cautious about simply repeating the findings. No such luck.
A bunch of you have been sending over various versions of the story about a new study, sponsored by the movie industry in Australia, suggesting that practically all BitTorrent traffic was for infringing files, with the number 99.7% of the traffic being thrown around by otherwise respectable publications. Thankfully, TorrentFreak actually bothered to look at the details and rips apart the problems with the study, noting that each of the four questions the study "answers" appear to be based on bogus data.
None of this is to suggest, of course, that the majority of BitTorrent usage is not likely to be infringing works. I don't think anyone doubts that it is most widely used for such things. The question, however, is whether or not it's really just 0.3% that's not infringing. It's possible, but the study used here doesn't seem to support the claim.
Any study issued by the entertainment industry has to be taken with a pinch of salt. I don't think I have seen any of the figures that they have issued, and they have issued a lot, stand up to independent scrutiny.
