MUMBAI: Tracking copyright infringement in the third quarter of 2012, music witnessed a higher level of piracy with 297 million illegal tracks being shared as compared to TV, film, video games, software and e-books combined, according to the ‘Wave 2’ report by Ofcom.

The report studied illegal file-sharing in UK and surveyed around 55,000 consumers across music, film, games, TV, e-books and software.

While 297mn infringing music track downloads occurred over the period, atleast 10 per cent of internet users had consumed music illegally. The proportion of users who consumed all their music for free fell from 54-46 per cent, in favour of the ‘mix of paid and free’ group which increased from 18-22 per cent.

Music as a sector witnessed the highest volumes of illegal content consumed over the period compared to TV (56mn), films (44mn), video games (35mn), computer software (27mn) and books (8mn).

Music had the highest total estimated volume of content consumed both digitally (1226mn tracks) and physically (275mn tracks) over the three-month period. 82 per cent of music tracks consumed over the previous quarter were consumed digitally. An estimated 59 per cent of all downloaded or streamed music was obtained for free, equating to 723mn tracks.

Online music subscriptions saw an increase to 14 per cent from 11 per cent between May-July 2012 and spend on music in physical format during this period (?240m) was less than that generated from digital music (approximately ?245m for individual purchases and online subscriptions combined).

Also, a fifth of adults in the UK aged over 12 claimed that they had spent money on physical music (on CD, vinyl or tape) in the past three months; this compared to 11 per cent for digital music (downloaded or streamed). Infact, spend on physical products was substantially higher than on digital for all content types.

According to the report, 16 per cent of internet users aged 12 and above in UK have consumed atleast one item of content illegally from August to October 2012, with five per cent of the demographic having consumed illegal content exclusively.

Many (almost half) who accessed the infringing content stated the reason that it was free, while 46 per cent did it for convenience and 43 per cent for speed. 26 per cent of the respondents said that they use pirated content to try before buying.

Out of those surveyed, 18 per cent of infringers said that receiving a letter from their ISP threatening to suspend their access would deter them. Across all the online content services the only significant change in usage levels from May-July 2012, was for BBC iPlayer which rose from 41-47 per cent amongst the 100 per cent legal group.

The report also stated that the overall consumption of online content including downloading increased as a result from 32-35 per cent. Netflix was the only lawful online service across all the content types for which awareness significantly changed from May-July 2012, rising from 54-58 per cent.