As a LAN organiser i realise that at said events, people are not just gaming - but also sharing files - and in great quantities. Although a stretch, I can also imagine that some of the individuals trading files may not be fully awair that the license on the content they are sharing may not permit them to be doing so. (thats without getting into an argument over how endless streams of  11010110101001010101010110101010101111010101 can have a license that prevents distribution and 100001101011010001010100010110010101010001010 can have a license that doest).

Interestingly I came across a study done by people at the University of California to looking into gaming and leeching at lans. I only had the pleasure of looking through the slideshow (pdf) so i really only got the crappy overview that a slide show can give you. Nevertheless, I did find it extremely interesting, and hence this rant.

The study's results show that lans are attended primarily by young males (no suprise there) who are predominantly of the 'right' persuasion (politically). Ok great who doesnt know that, but the study does include that there is a distinction between 'sharers' and 'gamers'. From reading further i personally conclude that the term 'leecher' is misleading, because file trading is much more mutual at a LAN than on the internet.

File size distribution is also leaning very heavily topward. Movie downloads (legit mpg/avi i guess) are downloaded 3x as much as over the internet and software (linux etc) almost 2x more.

From personal experience i know that having lots of files is midly addictive. There is definately competition about who has the most comprehensive collection of legitimate files available for trade.

Click here for the slide show

It has pretty pictures and graphs!