Study: Filesharing Shows No Slowdown

Napster may be down for the count, but its millions of former members are happily swapping audio files elsewhere, according to an October 10 report from technology research firm Jupiter Media Metrix Inc.

The use of services such as Kazaa, Grokster, and Morpheus has risen by almost 500% since March, the report states. In August, a total of 6.9 million people used the services, while those using Napster dropped to 5.5 million, a decline of 49%. Morpheus is the rising king of the Internet underworld, with 2.3 million users in August, an increase of 186% since June. : Kazaa Media Desktop was estimated to have 1.3 million users; another service called Winmx was close behind with 1.2 million users, Jupiter stated.

The services are all defendants in copyright-infringement litigation lodged against them October 3 by the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America. With the exception of Morpheus, the targeted services are all based outside the United States, which may make legal enforcement difficult. Morpheus is operated by MusicCity of Nashville, TN.

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