Security software maker McAfee has said in a recent report that shutting down individual websites dedicated to piracy will do nothing to stop the flow of illegal downloads.
The report cites the biggest torrent-sharing site in the world, The Pirate Bay, and says its short-lived shutdown during August did nothing to stop downloads of copyrighted materials.
The site was ordered to be shut down by a Swedish court, but shortly came back online. McAfee said recording piracy during the downturn found no slowdown in illegal activities.
“The Pirate Bay example shows how difficult it is to ‘stop’ data once it is on the web,” the report sai. “Although a website can be shut down, anyone who has accessed the content (pictures, games, text, movies, etc) may still have some and be able to redistribute it.”
McAfee said users responded to the situation by forming a community of users who created new databases of content that could be made available to other users on the internet.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
