According to the report, at least 17 percent of adult users were not aware of the violations they are committing every time they copy CD contents into their computers or music players.

“The so-called format shifting or changing of CD music contents into MP3, MP4, or other music formats is illegal under the British copyright law. When a person has upload the music files from the CDs to their computers, the shift in the content format can already be considered illegal, even if they listen to just one file,” said Consumer Focus International Director Jill Johnstone.

The government-backed organization’s survey was conducted to more than 2, 000 adult users.

Meanwhile, in a separate survey, research firm Ofcom said that more than 41 percent or rough 18 million adults in UK own MP3 digital music player or iPod devices. The study also showed that there are at least five million Brits who own mobile phones and other devices that can play music files downloaded from their PCs.

Consumer Focus said that since the law was approved by the legislative body, not a single person has been charged or prosecuted with regards to format shifting.

The company also said that the music industry has to seriously consider in pushing for the law to be changed if it want to address the growing problem of piracy not only in the Internet but also in the personal level.

Consumer Focus said that the legislation should be enacted together with the Digital Economy Bill, which is still subjected to debate in the parliament, for the government to be able to be true to its crackdown against illegal file-sharers.

“The credibility of the UK government in the fight against illegal file-sharers and other copyright infringers will fall underneath the floor if they will not be able to address this problem,” Johnstone said.

One of the best examples of the impending threat to e-Books is the illegal file-sharing of Dan Brown’s novel “The Lost Symbol,” which was earlier released in September.

The blockbuster novel could have set the pace for the future of e-Books withmajor e-Reader manufacturers outselling hardcopy editions.

However, the projected paradigm shift from hardbacks to digital books was marred by the illegal downloading of the e-Book copies, which also threatens publishers and authors, who have agreed to digitize their books for a more lucrative market.

Reports told that less than a day after “The Lost Symbol” was released, pirated digital copies of the e-Book was already being shared to peer-to-peer file-sharing websites like BitTorrent and Rapishare.

It also told that less than a week after the release, the e-Book copies has been downloaded more than 100, 000 times in the said P2P networks.

Experts said that the digital piracy problems, which has long been confined to music and movies, may only get worse as demand for e-Readers continue to grow.

Since its launching, Amazon’s Kindle, Sony e-Reader, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, as well as other Smartphone manufacturers like the Apple iPhone and Research in Motion’s Blackberry has made significant sales records in 2009.

The Association of American Publishers said that digital book sales in the second quarter of 2009 has rallied to more than $37 million, three times higher than the sales record in the same period in 2008.

The group said that they did not publicly release the said study, fearing that it could attract illegal downloads.

However, with the rise in the number of digital book readers and the availability of millions of e-Book copies on the Internet, publishers and authors will have future headaches in 2010 as the industry faces more tough challenges ahead.