The Pirate Bay boasts on its homepage that it has over 4 million registered users, and a further 24 million unregistered. So how hard can downloading actually be? I put on my eye-patch, swigged a bottle of rum and began my journey into the world of internet file-sharing.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing services such as The Pirate Bay cost the economy billions of pounds each year, but despite the looming spectre of the digital economy act, file-sharing continues to grow.

My investigation for RiverOnline was enough to show me why so many people have turned to internet piracy: six mouse clicks, and few taps on my keyboard was all that was needed to access a library of almost 3 million films, television shows, games and music. Now you can’t get that down at your local HMV, let alone for free.

The downloading process was simpler than I expected. Sites like The Pirate Bay are massive directories of links known as ‘torrents’. Internet users can download a ‘torrent client’ such as the popular uTorrent for free and start file-sharing within seconds.

Having downloaded a torrent client, I headed over to The Pirate Bay site and leapt into a world of free entertainment. Want the latest blockbuster? My seach for the new Robin Hood movie returned 331 matches or seeds as they are known on the web. One seed had over 2,000 people, known as leechers, downloading from it.

Once you have picked your file, you open it in the torrent client and it starts to download. Depending on your connection speed this can take a few hours or in some cases just a few minutes. The process can be repeated again and again, with no limit set by the site to how many downloads a person can make.

With file-sharing becoming so easy, it is not hard to see why the media corporations consider it such a big threat, and the clearest indication that the file-sharers are winning in the battle against Hollywood came last Thursday, when Sky took the unprecedented decision to broadcast the finale of the American drama series Lost, at a bleary eyed 5am slot on 24 May.

Within minutes of the show airing in the US, copies of the latest episodes are widely available on the internet, and by screening the show simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic, the broadcaster hopes to beat the pirates.

Stuart Murphy, Sky1's director of programmes, said: "We are proud of the fact that at Sky1 HD we have a long tradition of running all of our US shows as close as possible to their US transmission date.

“With something as hotly anticipated as the Lost finale, it makes sense to show it at exactly the same time as millions across America will see it."

This move will surely cost the company a significant loss in advertising revenue, as taking the show away from its regular Friday primetime slot and moving it to the early hours of Monday morning will no doubt affect the viewing figures. Sky has looked at the situation and realised it would be better to take a small hit on advertising, in order to secure viewers who would go elsewhere if the programme was held back.

The passing of the digital economy act, which comes into force in June, is the governments attempt to restore order. It will see file-sharers’ internet connections cut if they caught repeatedly downloading files illegally. However piracy has always been illegal. Previous legislation has not been able to stop the rapid rise of these sites, so what makes this new law any different? This government scare tactic may put off a few casual users, but the real internet pirates will not walk the plank without putting up a fight.