Users of Napster alternatives up 500% in the U.S.

In the wake of Napster's legal troubles with the music industry, some 7 million Americans are now active users of alternative applications for swapping music and other digital-media files, according to a new report.

Internet research firm Jupiter Media Metrix said its count of U.S. file-sharers using software other than Napster's increased nearly 500 percent between March and August of this year.

Those numbers, along with corroborating data from market research firms such as Webnoize, suggest the enormity of the task ahead for record companies and other content producers who aim to stamp out unauthorized trading of digital media.

Indeed, major recording companies and motion picture studios last week teamed up in a copyright-infringement lawsuit that targets some of the busiest services in the survey of popular Napster alternatives released by Jupiter today.

Last month, Webnoize, of Cambridge, Mass., said that a count of the number of files actually traded via Napster alternatives in August - 3.05 billion - was higher than Napster's February record total of 2.79 billion.

However, in addition to permitting the exchange of digital music, many of the Napster alternatives allow users to exchange any kind of file, including video and software.

Jupiter said that, while the demographics of Napster users had grown to more closely mirror the overall online population, the newer alternatives are more heavily used by young males.

"Collectively, 31 percent of users of the file-sharing alternatives in August 2001 were between 12 and 17 years old," Jupiter said. "Forty-three percent were males 18 and over and 26 percent were females 18 and over."