Stephen Fry admits to illegal downloading

Stephen Fry has admitted to downloading copyrighted material illegally on the internet.

Writer, actor and comedian Stephen Fry has confessed to illegal file sharing, having downloaded episodes of a US television show online.

Speaking at the iTunes festival in London, he said he had used the BitTorrent website to access the comedy series House, in which his former co-star Hugh Laurie is the central character.

However, he claimed he had already downloaded the episodes legally and only used the illegal channels to access the show while he was away from home.

In a speech about copyright and the future of music, the QI presenter suggested that the industry is wrong to go after ordinary people who download one or two files without paying for them.

He acknowledged that those who pirate on a commercial scale in order to make a profit should face punishment, as their activities can be extremely damaging to the creators of music, films and television programmes.

However, he stressed: "Making example of ordinary people is the stupidest thing the record industry can do."

Tom Dunmore, editor of Stuff magazine, told Sky News that Mr Fry's comments could have an impact on how the intellectual property issue is dealt with.

"When Stephen Fry gets involved a lot of people will listen," he stated, adding: "The industry needs to be a bit more relaxed about its draconian view of copyright."

Following his speech, the broadcaster posted a message on his Twitter feed to clarify his stance on music piracy.

He wrote: "Hope I'm not misunderstood. Such a pity if I get misrepresented as a 'help yourself and be a pirate' advocate."

Meanwhile, a new study by the research group Music Ally has revealed that the proportion of web users who download copyrighted material illegally has fallen over the last two years.

This coincides with the growth of legal music streaming services such as Spotify.