CNET is reporting that the sun will rise tomorrow. That is, they’re reporting, citing TorrentFreak’s data, that The Dark Knight is well on its way to becoming the most pirated movie of all time. Of course, more people have access to broadband now, and the proliferation of well-seeded BitTorrent sites means it takes zero effort to download it—no waiting in an IRC queue these days—so the claim (“most downloaded ever!”) is hollow.
Some examples: the first DVD rip to hit regular BitTorrent sites, the DoNE rip, first appeared on November 12. Since then, on invite-only TorrentLeech, the movie has been downloaded more than 6,100 times, with 882 people currently seeding. The first Blu-ray rip (720p), released by iNFAMOUS, has been downloaded more than 1,600 times. Various other releases, including DVD-R versions and “propers” add yet more seeds to the pile.
As it stand, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End has been download more than 393,000 times on TorrentLeech, the most downloaded file on the site. It was released May, 2007, some 18 months before The Dark Knight.
How you feel about downloading movies is your own business and I, unlike CNET, won’t grandstand about the morality of it all.