Twenty million Americans downloaded a movie off the Internet in the past month, with 80% of these reporting that they only use file-sharing sites — a figure that doubled between 2005 and 2006, according to a report from market research firm Solutions Research Group. Overall, 32 million Americans, or 18% of the U.S. online population, has ever downloaded a movie from the Internet. The typical movie file-swapper is 29 years old (63% male, 37% female) and has 16 movies stored on a PC. Only 40% of those surveyed said they believe downloading “copyrighted movies off the Internet” is a “very serious offense,” compared to the 78% who would say the same of “taking a DVD from a store without paying.”

“The current crop of ‘download to own’ movie services and the new ones coming into the market will need to offer greater flexibility of use, selection and low prices to convert the current users to their services — otherwise file-sharing will continue to thrive,” said Solutions Research Group study director Kaan Yigit.