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Big Champagne reports that in September the average number of people logged onto p2p networks worldwide was 9,284,558. In September 2003 the figure was 4,319,182. Moreover the increase in the number of users since the 2004 figure of 6,784,574 suggest that there is no slowing in the rate of growth.

Music remains the cornerstone of p2p activity accounting for just over 70 per cent of all traffic while the swapping

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of movies remains at low levels. However as Big Champagne's tracking method cannot measure BitTorrent traffic the figures for the number of films swapped is likely to be lower than the actual level.

In July John Kennedy, CEO of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI), said that the legal campaign against file sharers in 11 countries was being effective in dissuading people from file sharing

'We are now seeing real evidence that people are increasingly put off by illegal file-sharing and turning to legal ways of enjoying music online,' he said. 'Whether it's the fear of getting caught breaking the law, or the realisation that many networks could damage your home PC, attitudes are changing, and that is good news for the whole music industry.'

This may well be the case but if attitudes are changing it has yet to be reflected by statistics. Even in the US, where there have been approximately 15,000 lawsuits, the rise in p2p usage mirrors the global trend.