p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Economist and p2pnet contributor Tom Koltai believes in Australia, P2P is worth more than the entire combined revenue base of the member companies of the various industry bodies trying to stop P2P.

With that as background, “Total visits by Australians to BitTorrent websites including Mininova, The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, TorrentReactor and Torrentz grew from 785,000 in April last year to 1,049,000 in April this year,” says Nielsen, quoted by The Age. “This is a year-on-year increase of 33.6 per cent.”

And the figures don’t include apps such as Limewire.

The story quotes Sony boss Michael ‘I’m a guy who sees nothing good having come from the Internet’ Lynton as saying the Net has, “created this notion that anyone can have whatever they want at any given time … and if you don’t give it to them for free, they’ll steal it”.

Additionally, it notes iiNet is being sued (and by the RIAA’s MediaSentry replacement ‘private eye‘), and Yong Hong Lin had the dubious honour of being the star of the “first copyright matters to proceed on indictment and be heard before a jury in Australia.

AND – it has Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music mouthlady Marianna Annas acknowledging an, “increase in visits to illegal download sites,” but also claiming, “consumers are choosing to purchase music from legitimate channels”.

Of course they are,  and they’re epitomised by all those rich people who can to pay $1 (at the bare minimum) for each dodgy iTunes file.

Not only but also,  Australian Visual Software Distributors Association boss Simon Bush says DVD and Blu-ray sales are “holding up well despite the recession and the increase in piracy,” stating:

“It doesn’t surprise me that Australians are using BitTorrent sites to get access to content – previous industry research has shown that Australians are per capita one of the world’s biggest users [of illegal download sites].

“It’s incumbent upon the industry to provide legal alternatives for the Australian consumer and I believe we are doing that.”

At the end of the day, “you can’t compete with free,” he adds in The Age story.

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trying to stop P2P – P2P: worth more than the Global Financial Crisis, May 29, 2009
The Age – Illegal downloads soar as hard times bite, May 27, 2009
Sony boss – Sony boss Michael Lynton, deconstructed, May 28, 2009
MediaSentry – MediaSentry operates in Australia: confirmed, May 23, 2009
‘private eye‘ – RIAA DtecNet in Hollywood iinet case, March 25, 2009
dubious honour – Australian movie crook busted, May 26, 2009