According to a brand new study on worldwide piracy, Manchester is Britain's hub of internet piracy - followed closely by Nottingham and Southampton. For all of you Mancunians kicking and stomping your feet, pointing toward the capital, we'll have you know that the mass of piracy was measured on downloads per person in the city, so pipe down.

In the first half of 2012, UK music listeners illegally shared over 40 millions albums and singles. Many popular UK news organisations have taken to their seats to project the end of music, again, and have made it clear that those forty million should be held down and force fed sudocrem. OK, piracy is an issue, but it is not at fault for our largely dogmatic music industry collapsing, in fact, Album Sales have been aided by the internet and, projections just aren't as bad as people expected them to be 10 years ago.

Ed Sheeran was the most pirated act... followed by Rizzle Kicks and Rihanna. Apparently Sheeran, the whacky funster, was pirated around 55,512 times a month, with legal sales being 448,000 for the first half of 2012.

There is currently a heated exchange taking place between the British Phonographic Industry (Uk's industry body) and the Leader of the Pirate Party, Loz Kaye.

The BPI Said:

"According to their data, there are more illegal downloads in the UK still than there are legal purchases," the BPI's chief executive Geoff Taylor told the BBC.

Whilst The Pirate Party Said:

"We need to remove the barriers for actual artists to connect with their business and their fans,"
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"The truth is, why [music industry figures] are complaining so much is that with a properly functioning internet, and a properly functioning economy, the big players are no longer necessary."