The file-sharing torrent portal ‘The Pirate Bay’ has cracked the list of the most visited sites on the internet – the Alexa top 100. They are not alone either – fellow torrent site Mininova sits at number 52.

What’s even more surprising is that these underground sites managed to top well-respected destinations such as About.com at number 78 and LiveJournal, just behind at 56.

Whether it be games, music, software or movies, file sharing is clearly a huge business despite its illegality.

There seems to be five distinct attitudes that divide file-sharers.

The first attitude is based on services we are used to receiving in-store. People in this group want to sample a product before purchasing it to make sure it’s something they like – much like sampling a CD at a music store listening station.

The second attitude is quite arrogant – people in this group feel that they should simply be getting everything for nothing.

The third attitude is a justification, especially when related to hugely expensive software titles such as Adobe Photoshop, that they could never afford to buy it anyway – so it’s not a lost sale, and their download cost the company nothing.

The fourth relates to products like music, where the person feels an artists’ record is just a promotional tool for a live concert, for which they will purchase expensive tickets to.

The fifth group uses file sharing as a method of distributing their own works and are not in any way acting illegally.

Clearly, piracy will not be going away anytime soon. With the current climate of financial uncertainty coupled with easy access to fast, unlimited broadband connections, there may soon be even more people turning to less-than-legal sources for their goods.