Online piracy has moved from a niche problem carried out by tech-savvy file-sharers to a mass movement, according to the music and film industries.

Paramount Pictures said that pirated versions of Star Trek were downloaded more than 5 million times in the four months after its release.

Six camcorder copies of the movie were made and spread quickly before a perfect copy of the DVD was posted online.

May 8 Film released worldwide.

11.31am First pirated copy made by a Russian moviegoer with a camcorder.

Made available as a DVD and a download. Within days online “release groups” marry the video image with stolen copies of the soundtrack (easily recorded directly from the headphone jack in the cinema seat) in every language in which the film is released.

12.49 Camcorder copy made in the Philippines and released as a DVD.

18.39 Ukrainian moviegoer records a better version with a camcorder. This is released as a DVD and online. More online groups merge the copy with pirated soundtracks in every language. This version dominates copies online in the months ahead. By the end of the day there are 65 web links to pirated versions.

May 10 Version made in Spain goes online with 3,687 links. It is downloaded by 155,000 unique IP addresses.

May 12 Another version recorded in Germany is released online with 11,847 web links and 487,000 downloads.

May 18 A US viewer records another camcorder version. It is put online with 46,716 web links and 2,000,000 downloads.

August 63,366 web links, 4,915,000 downloads

September 9 A good quality pay-per-view version is put online. Films made in French, Spanish, German and Russian.

September 21 A quality version, taken from the movie DVD, goes online with 73,625 web links and 5,320,000 downloads. About 35 million people saw the film at the cinema.

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