Pirates Buy 10X More Than Non-Pirates

GIZMODO - A study from the BI Norwegian School of Management has found that those who download free music from services like BitTorrent are also the biggest legitimate consumers of downloadable music.

In fact, among all 1,901 Norway-based study participants (all of whom were over the age of 15), it was found that those who downloaded "free" music were 10x more likely to download pay music. In other words, music pirates are the music industry's largest online consumers.

Note: "Free" music obviously implies pirated music, but it also encompasses legitimate free music download services.

The findings also included that, in the 15-20 age range, 50% of participants had bought a CD in the last six months. So that trusty format isn't dead quite yet.

Who would have thought!

Navy Announces Anti-Piracy Force

U.S. Navy officials have announced the formation of a new international force to fight piracy in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf Aden off the coast of Somalia.

A statement Thursday issued by the Bahrain-based U.S. Fifth Fleet says the task force will include assets from 20 nations, and will be led by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Terence McKnight. The statement did not name the specific nations participating in the force.

Warships from a number of nations including China, Malaysia and the European Union are already patrolling the region to secure the shipping lanes.

Better than this than to fight another kind of piracy.