It turns out that Fox’s assumption is right. We decided to look into the download locations of one of the most popular Prison Break torrents and found that, based on a sample of more than 250,000 downloads, most downloaders are located in Europe.

In our sample, which represents approximately 10% of the total downloads this week, the show was most downloaded in Poland (12%). UK and France were in second and third place respectively, followed by Canada and The Netherlands. The US was sixth in the list with only 4% of the total downloads, and Greece, Spain, Australia and Brazil complete the top 10.

As we have said before, availability seems to the key issue why people turn to BitTorrent. Non-US Prison Break fans sometimes have to wait for weeks or even months before the show airs on TV in their country, and many of them are not that patient, or willing to torture themselves. Until this problem is addressed, we’re not likely to see a decrease in TV-show downloads from BitTorrent.

The 4% US downloaders that preferred to get the show via BitTorrent instead of streaming it online probably did so because they wanted to watch it on their TV or get a higher quality copy – streaming isn’t all that. Both Fox and Hulu, the two sites that offer Prison Break streams have not published any numbers, so it’s hard to compare the number of US downloaders (~100.000) with the US streamers.

We do have a new TV-torrent download chart, with plenty of newcomers. So, let’s take a look at the 10 most downloaded shows this week. The data for the weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak from a representative sample of BitTorrent sites and is for informational and educational reference only.

Top Downloads August 31 – September 07

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

TorrentFreak: The polish party was founded when exactly?

Kaczorowski: The idea of creating PP in Poland appeared 27 July 2006

TorrentFreak: And you registered this week, in court, for official political party status?

Kaczorowski: Yes, on Monday we went to court to submit all papers needed for registration. Now will will have to wait for registration but from the moment of giving papers to court we will have pre-registration status.

TorrentFreak: how long until that status is confirmed?

Kaczorowski: Depends – if everything will be ok with papers – 2 weeks

TorrentFreak: The next (European) election is going to be held in September 2009, will you be putting up candidates?

Kaczorowski: Here in Poland we have elections on 27 October but it is way to soon for us too start. The elections for Europarlament in 2009 will be probably our first elections – if our parliament will not fall apart before that date.

TorrentFreak: How many members do you currently have?

Kaczorowski: 2,000 registered on web page, 30 people actually active – numbers are small becouse we weren’t advertising ourselves a lot – we are waiting for gathering people – we needed to register first, create a new web page and then we can look for more people

TorrentFreak: What has been your biggest activity, as a party, to date?

Kaczorowski: probably the appearing on Woodstock Stop music festival in Kostrzyn. Lots of fun, great music and talking to people about our issues.

TorrentFreak: What big events do you have planned for the near future?

Kaczorowski: The registration, first inside party elections and Pirate Party internationals upcoming meeting in Berlin

TorrentFreak: Recently, you expressed your distaste with Commissioner Franco Frattini’s proposal regarding anti-terrorism and the Internet, by comparing it to how Poland was run in the 1980s. How much has the country changed since then, and what does the Pirate Party aim to do to help accelerate the change from the soviet era?

Kaczorowski: Like 180 degrees. In 80s we has socialism here with all its worst totalitarian ambitions and a grate Solidarność movement underground. Media control was normal but it didn’t worked out. You could listen to Free Europe radio beside communist trying to jam transmissions, You could read all underground printed newspapers even if for having one you could get in jail quickly – the same would be with internet now , if someone would try to control information people will go underground. Even if from first sight trying to not give terrorist info is good – controlling internet is much worse – it is a step back in creating free informational society.

TorrentFreak: Dziękuję bardzo za wasz czas

Kaczorowski: No problem

For more information about the Polish Party, you can visit their website here.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.