I’ve read different classifications of P2P file sharers regarding their motives in scientific articles. From my point of view the most relevant system consists of:
- (rough) collectors, who download as much as possible as fast as possible (preferably only at one time), mostly extensive collections of albums, movies or TV series;
- hunters, who are looking for rare, special or sold out editions, mostly real fans of an artist trying to get the “last piece”;
- explorers, who are browsing the Net for new and unknown artists, often just the step before buying the CDs, DVDs, or books.

The huge amount of traffic I described in the blog was caused by the first type, by collectors downloading as much Michael Jackson music as possible at one time - attracted by the media hype after his death. The other downloaders (the non-red lines) were mostly hunters, looking for special editions of a certain album.

Thanks for the interesting article.

I am slightly confused by your last sentence: “This is a good example of different motives of downloaders.” Different motives? I have spotted one motive only - “just to have it”. If you can call it a motive at all. To me it seems like an unmotivated activity caused by an incidence. Did I miss some facts?

Could you share the other motives with me?!

Looking forward to your reply, Maja