The music industry often pigeon holes the Internets as a bastion for thieving, good-for-nothing lowlifes that continue to suckle off the teat of hardworking six figure executives struggling to put food on their tables.

A recent article from BBC News finally puts an end to this long drawn out debate, as a recent study has concluded that the same people who engage in peer-to-peer file sharing are more likely to spend larger amounts of money on music than the common shmo.

According to the completely unscientific study, 1 out every 10 people interviewed admitted to illegally downloading music.

However, roughly 80 percent of those same people also claimed to regularly purchase CDs, vinyl, and MP3s

Interestingly enough, the spending habits of the average file sharer was calculated at $126, almost twice as much as law-abiding citizens ($72).

Participants in the study also noted that the ideal price for MP3s is $.75 per track.

“Politicians and music companies need to recognize that the nature of music consumption has changed and consumers are demanding lower prices and easier access to music,” said British researcher Peter Bradwell.

The recent closure of popular file sharing website, The Pirate Bay, was supposed to solve all the music industry’s problems, but it turns out their harsh and lonely winter has only just begun.

According to a report released by McAfee security experts, the dissolution of the one-time internet piracy giant has resulted in the creation of similar websites that operate with even more anonymity.

“Pirate Bay is just a redirect site to lead people to sources where they can get media and other files,” McAfee spokesperson Greg Day told PCPro. “Once it was temporally shut down, those people still wanted the torrents so they went elsewhere, and that meant lots of other sites popped up to take advantage.”

Day says the presence of file hosting websites has increased by 300 percent since a Swedish court ruled against The Pirate Bay for their alleged role in copyright infringement, and only proves how difficult it is to control information on the interweb.