Rightscorp COO Robert Steele's Article Featured on The Trichordist

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Rightscorp (OTCQB: RIHT), the leading provider of monetization services for artists and holders of copyrighted Intellectual Property (IP), announced that its Chief Operating Officer Robert Steele's article titled "Is the Piracy Threat Really Decreasing" has been featured on The Trichordist.

In the online article, Mr. Steele poses the question of whether piracy has been on the decline given reports such as Sandvine, which has claimed that during the second half of 2013, file-sharing's share of aggregate peak-period traffic in North America fell from 10.5% to 8.93%. Mr. Steele makes the case that piracy in terms of number of movies and music files consumed has actually steadily increased since overall internet traffic grows at a much faster rate than the percentage decline in overall share. To support this notion, Mr. Steele cites flat or declining revenues for major media companies, which is contrary to recent reports that digital piracy is declining. In addition, the increase use of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) is allowing BitTorrent users to become more savvy by masking their traffic from their ISP, indicating the rise in popularity of "dark nets" including Tor and other encrypted digital lockers used for online piracy.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) states that since peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing emerged in 1999, music sales in the U.S. have dropped 53%, from $14.6 billion to $7.0 billion in 2012. According to the RIAA, approximately 30 billion songs were illegally downloaded on file-sharing networks between 2004 and 2009. A study conducted by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) based on over 20,000 surveys of consumers conducted in 22 countries, found that piracy was costing movie studios $6.1 billion a year. The Institute for Policy Innovation concludes that global music piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year, 71,060 U.S. jobs lost, a loss of $2.7 billion in workers' earnings.

The Tricordist is an online publication focused on creating a sustainable and ethical internet for the protection of artists rights in the digital age.  The article can be found on The Trichordist website at: http://thetrichordist.com/2014/02/15/is-the-piracy-threat-really-decreasing/

About Rightscorp, Inc.
Rightscorp (OTCQB: RIHT) is a leading provider of monetization services for artists and holders of copyrighted Intellectual Property (IP). The Company's patent pending digital loss prevention technology focuses on the infringement of digital content such as music, movies, software, and games and ensures that owners and creators are rightfully paid for their IP.  Rightscorp implements existing laws to solve copyright infringements by collecting payments from illegal file sharing activities via notifications sent through Internet Service Providers (ISPs).  The Company's technology identifies copyright infringers, who are offered a reasonable settlement option when compared to the legal liability defined in the Digital Millennium Copyrights Act (DMCA). Based on the fact that 24% of all Internet traffic is used to distribute copyrighted content without permission or compensation to the creators, Rightscorp is pursuing an estimated $2.3 billion opportunity and has monetized major media titles through relationships with industry leaders. http://www.rightscorpinc.com/

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