Data & technology
Photo: Mika Baumeister
BitTorrent
BitTorrent is a technology where you as a user can download and share e.g. movies and music using a special computer program called a BitTorrent client. With a BitTorrent client on your computer, you can download small chunks (bits) of movie or music files from other Internet users who also have the program on their computer. The program downloads the individual bits of, for example, a movie from different users who also have their BitTorrent client open and the movie lying on their computer. Once all the bits of a movie have been downloaded, the program collects them for the total movie stored locally on your computer. Now the movie can be viewed on the computer – and passed on to others.
Thus, when a user plays or downloads a file from a website on the Internet and opens the file on his or her computer with the BitTorrent client, he or she is immediately connected to other users on the file sharing network. It is through the BitTorrent client that users meet and the file sharing takes place. The file-sharing users on BitTorrent networks are referred to as peers, which is why they often refer to BitTorrent networks as peer-to-peer, P2P networks or user-to-user networks.
When talking about BitTorrent network users, you distinguish between two different types of users. A user who downloads from others and a user who uploads and shares to others. A user who downloads files is called a ‘leecher’ after the English word for leech. This is a user who ‘sucks’ files from the other users. Conversely, a user who uploads and makes files accessible to others is called a ‘seeder’. This is a user who ‘sows’ files so other users can harvest them.
Most BitTorrent clients operate so that active users are automatically both leechers and seeders. Active users are constantly sharing what they are downloading with other users. When the user finishes downloading, the user must manually turn off the continued seeding, otherwise he or she will continue to make the file available to others, even if the user has finished downloading.
BitTorrent technology is an effective form of file sharing because it distributes the network load by downloading file bites individually from different active users from different locations rather than downloading the files in one place. In this way, the user can get a high download speed, which is used legally by, i.a., many computer game manufacturers to send updates to their users.
Cyberlocker
A cyberlocker is a service on the Internet where you can upload and store files, such as text documents, music, or movies. ‘Dropbox’ is one of the most well-known cyberlockers. Cyberlockers can be used in a completely legal way, such as sharing personal photos or videos, but are also a widely used technology to distribute content illegally.
E.g., when a movie is uploaded to a cyberlocker’s website, it gets its own unique URL, where it is stored and can be downloaded from. This URL can be shared with others, who then have the opportunity to download the movie to their computer. In pirate environments, these URLs are spread as links on forums and networks specifically designed to gather links and give users access to the content they store. Such types of forums and networks are often referred to as link sites and thus do not store the content themselves, but link to the unique URL of the cyberlocker where the file is stored.
Streaming
Streaming is one of the most popular methods in Denmark when it comes to using illegal content. When a movie or song is streamed, it means that the product is played – viewed or heard – while being delivered to the computer you are streaming from. The word ‘streaming’ comes from, e.g., the movie or song being delivered in a continuous ‘stream’ to the consumer. Spotify and Netflix are examples of legal streaming services.
The Internet is a natural part of our everyday lives, and an integral part of our way of communicating with each other. Through various platforms and services on online, we send documents, images, videos, and other forms of content to each other via file sharing networks, and we frequently use streaming to watch movies and series, listen to music, and read books.
But file sharing and streaming and other technologies are unfortunately also used to distribute illegal content, such as movie or music files. The files are protected by copyright and sharing them is therefore illegal when it is without consent of the copyright holder.
To the left, you can click and read more about the three most common technologies: Streaming, BitTorrent and Cyberlocker, which are used to consume and distribute content illegally on the Internet. While the technologies themselves are not illegal and used by a wide range of legal services, they are often used for illegal purposes.
How does Rights Alliance collect data?
Rights Alliance’s work is based on data, as data gives a specific picture of the behaviour of the Danes in the illegal market on the Internet, and thus it also shows us how we can best respond to the illegal behaviour. Our data providers may change from time to time, but the most central data is partly collected from the internet analytics company SimilarWeb, who measure traffic to illegal websites, and partly from the digital analysis institute Mediavision’s annual user behaviour survey in the Nordic region. Together, our various data providers give us a picture of the Danes’ use of the Internet and the opportunity to keep track of how it is evolving from year to year. In addition, we receive data from the internet analytics company MarkMonitor, who monitor how many times illegal content is shared and downloaded from various platforms. We also acquire knowledge from various international studies, including from EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office), which provides specific data on European citizens – including Danes. Thus, all Rights Alliance’s work is based on factual knowledge.
SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb is a acknowledged provider of data that provides insight into trends on the Internet. Estimated traffic data is based on anonymized user behaviour from SimilarWeb’s user panel. This data is compared with a data set that is measured directly on websites. The difference between estimated traffic data and directly measured data is the way in which data is collected.
Directly measured traffic data is usually based on codes implemented on a website at the website owner’s request. In this way, the proprietor can follow the traffic to this particular website e.g. through Google Analytics. Estimated traffic data is based on algorithms that calculate an estimate based on the input the algorithm receives – input that includes data from SimilarWeb’s user panel, the data set of directly measured data, and information from other affiliates such as ISPs. Since website owners do not, as a rule, share their data with others, estimated data is the best tool for monitoring the development of websites that you do not manage yourself.
Also, since ISPs do not share their data on the actual digital behaviour of the Danes, it is not possible to verify the estimated data, but the estimated data is nonetheless applicable to detect trends and developments in the illegal market as it is the same algorithm, used on all websites over time.
Mediavision
Each year, the digital analytics institute MediaVision conducts a user survey in the Nordic region that explores the extent of illegal behaviour in relation to downloading and streaming of movies and TV. The survey has provided insight into the illegal consumption of film and TV in the Nordic countries since 2010 and remains part of Rights Alliance data base.
For 12 months, the online user survey that asks more than 1,000 respondents from the respective Nordic countries to answer a number of questions about their illegal behaviour once a month. The respondents are between the ages of 15-74, and illegal behaviour outside the age group is therefore not included, and neither is the use of illegal content on legal services, such as YouTube.
The data provided on the basis of the annual survey provides an in-depth insight into the Danes’ online behaviour and use of the illegal market, as well as providing a basis for comparison with our Nordic neighbours and thus collaborating on efforts etc.