Hoping this hasn't been posted before, but found an interesting 2-pager (PDF) with numbers on P2P vs. GDP etc. around the world. Fascinating how Japan is the only nation who's GDP is higher than it's P2P share. Is the explanation really as simple as "the Japanese are more law-abiding"?
A large part probably has to do with one of the purest Gaussian wealth distributions - i.e., most folks calculate it's not worth their time to P2P search and would rather just pay for the convenience of a guaranteed working copy. Of course, as the MPAA gaurantees that what illegal copies exist are of good quality, this will change. Could be an interesting cultural study.