An internet magazine has claimed that universal copyright laws should be put in place to counter file-sharing websites.

Web-User claims that clearer guidelines are needed as it is difficult to know whether file-sharing websites like emule and LimeWire are breaking the law.

A survey by NDP group revealed that in the US 70 per cent of children aged between nine and 14-years-old downloaded music from the internet. Of this figure, 49 per cent used the iTunes website, however 26 per cent used the LimeWire service that allows free downloads.

Ben Camm-Jones, news editor of Web-User, said: "Although precedents have been set, we're still fairly unclear whether what they're doing is wrong or not. It's enough of a legal grey area for many of these sites to still be operating."

Currently nine record companies, including EMI and Warner, are suing online music provider Project Playlist for copyright infringement.

This follows recent news when MacAfee discovered a malware outbreak that had affected 500,000 file sharing computers when users tried to download certain media files.

More than half of small businesses (53%) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support, London based Connect conducted the research in 2007.