What's replacing P2P, BitTorrent as pirate hangouts

Though Rapidshare has faced lawsuits related to piracy, DeMarines says it and other file-hosting sites are tricky to prosecute legally becuase uploaders are not required to register or identify themselves. Also, Rapidshare tries to distance itself from any knowledge of the pirated goods by not filtering or monitoring the content on its servers.

"For us, everything is just a file, no matter what," a spokeswoman told The Times in March. DeMarines said Rapidshare does comply with the Safe Harbor Provisions of the U.S.' Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by quickly taking down pirated files when notified by the copyright holders.

The company even grants certain organizations direct access into their service, so that they can go ahead and delete the hyperlinks and pirated files themselves, DeMarines said.

Peer-to-peer networking (P2P) does still remain the largest channel for distributing pirated software, movies and other digital content. Ipoque said it enables between 43% to 70% of piracy, depending on the region of the world.

The most popular network remains BitTorrent , which is used by six out of 10 P22 users, V.I. Labs said.