In the world of entertainment, "free" comes with costs!

The site for the motion picture Association at www.mpaa.org produced an interesting article titled, "Digital music and movies report: The true cost of entertainment" produced by McAfee. In this industry report the mpaa informs us of cyber-crime and how to prevent it. The article can be found under the policy and research category. There is also a section titled industry reports which outlines independent reports. To view the article you can use the following link,
 http://newsroom.mcafee.com/images/10039/DMMRReport_US_25Aug2010.pdf.

This report offers a very accurate risk assessment for viewing, streaming and
downloading free content online. Findings include an increase in riskiness of the sites for users that type in the word “free” in the search engine. According to McAfee, there are highly suspicious URLs associated with fan pages and comment boards on sites.

Highly trafficked sites are targeted with downloading videos, streaming movies,
screen savers and live feeds. One example is that during April 2010. McAfee identified websites hosted in Russia and Brazil that advertised videos and  images for the FIFA world cup but led users to rogue anti-virus programs which accessed users personal or financial information.

The strong demand for free content introduces users to numerous risks. These so called, “free” sites have become a forum for attracting users that are unaware of the dangers but are searching for free content and media. Illegal content is now designed to look sophisticated and professional to exploit consumers. It is difficult for the average consumer to determine what services are legitimate. This type of ability fosters new more active sites that host or distribute illegal or illegitimate media.  On these host sites users can rank content, online media users download video content, along with music, movies, ring tones, etc.,

 Cybercrooks also take advantage of consumers who are attracted to breaking news, and hot topics. Searching a popular artist and their recent hit brings more risk than simply searching just the artist. These virtual crooks implement malware by redirecting users to download or click "ok" to material that they don’t want when they are attempting to view or download videos or movies. Researchers have discovered over 700,000 web pages that are identical to the look that youtube has, except they were created to spread malware. Online advertising on media sites are also opportunities to spread viruses, or get personal info from users.

McAfee noted that there's a 40% increase in websites that are delivering infected MP3 files or built for the sole purpose of conducting some type of cyber-crime. This includes malware infection and identity theft, towards anyone who's looking to retrieve MP3 files online.  Due to the demand for digital media, cyber-crime is a very big business. Any media that can be streamed is at risk including, TV, film and music.

McAfee suggests that when searching entertainment content without being aware of where the content is coming from, users become more exposed to risks.

Movie fan sites are likely to infect users. Cyber-crooks lay traps through in-demand movies. Movie fans expose themselves to a host of risks by using unauthorized illegal content they often become victims of identity theft, malicious code that's downloaded with a streamed movie. However, ratings, reviews and theatre inquiries are surprisingly safe.

The information provided in this report is important to the industry because we live in a technological society where young adults are the leading users of technology and teenagers are the future leaders in society who thrive off using gadgets, smart phones, uploading and retrieving information, video conferencing and streaming content and videos on youtube and sites identical to youtube. Their is no limit to the abilities that users have as they track responses, fans, followers and potential social networks that they also connect with. We are in a information age where technology gains status over all genres of material that may be accessed.

Article:
Greve, Paula. (2010.). Re: "Digital music and movies report: The true cost of entertainment." Retrieved on Nov. 10, 2010. From www.mpaa.org at  http://newsroom.mcafee.com/images/10039/DMMRReport_US_25Aug2010.pdf.