Canadians may complain about high internet bills, low download limits and too few choices for providers, but that certainly isn’t stopping people from illegally downloading songs like crazy.

A new study of BitTorrent users has found that Canadians are fourth in the world for unauthorized music downloads on the popular BitTorrent file-sharing network. Only the U.S., Britain and Italy rank higher, but on a per capita basis, Canadians download more unauthorized music than any of those countries.

On a per-person basis, Canadians downloaded nearly two-and-a-half times as many unauthorized songs as Americans in the first half of 2012 (23.95 million in Canada, versus 96.68 million in the U.S.).

PHOTOS: TOP 9 COUNTRIES FOR DOWNLOADING MUSIC ON BITTORRENT

The first-ever Digital Music Index from analytics firm MusicMetric found the most pirated piece of music in Canada in the first half of 2012 was the Kanye West and Jay-Z album Watch The Throne.

But expressed as a percentage of total sales and downloads, the most pirated piece of music in Canada was the Hedley album Storms — suggesting that Hedley fans are the most likely to download pirated music.

Overall, the study found that about three billion songs and albums were downloaded through the BitTorrent network in the first half of 2012.

PHOTOS: 15 COUNTRIES WITH THE GREATEST ACCESS TO BROADBAND

Music piracy has been the target of numerous lawsuits in the U.S., some of which have resulted in huge fines for downloaders. Canada has had few such lawsuits, but it has seen at least one lawsuit against unauthorized downloading of movies, which appears to have been abandoned.

The high rates of intellectual property piracy in Canada have been a source of tension between the U.S. and Canada, with the U.S. pressuring Canada for years to toughen its approach to piracy.

And, as the MusicMetric study itself has shown, it’s fairly easy to track computers that connect to file-sharing networks.

TOP 9 COUNTRIES FOR DOWNLOADING MUSIC ON BITTORRENT

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  • #9 - France

    BitTorrent downloads: 8.39 million Most downloaded artist: Sexion d'Assaut Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #8 - India

    BitTorrent downloads: 8.96 million Most downloaded artist: Billy Van Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #7 - Spain

    BitTorrent downloads: 10.3 million Most downloaded artist: Pablo Alboran Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #6 - Australia

    BitTorrent downloads: 19.23 million Most downloaded artist: Hilltop Hoods Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #5 - Brazil

    BitTorrent downloads: 19.72 million Most downloaded artist: Billy Van Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #4 - Canada

    BitTorrent downloads: 23.95 million Most downloaded artist: Kanye West Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #3 - Italy

    BitTorrent downloads: 33.15 million Most downloaded artist: Laura Pausini Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #2 - The United Kingdom

    BitTorrent downloads: 43.26 million Most downloaded artist: Ed Sheeran Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

  • #1 - The United States

    BitTorrent downloads: 96.68 million Most downloaded artist: Drake Statistics from the <a href="http://www.musicmetric.com/dmi/" target="_hplink">Digital Music Index </a>

15 COUNTRIES WITH THE GREATEST ACCESS TO BROADBAND

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  • 15. France - 66.8%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 14. United States - 68.2%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 13. United Kingdom - 69.5%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 12. Belgium - 70.0%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 11. Luxembourg - 70.3%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 10. Switzerland - 70.8%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 9. Canada - 72.2%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 8. Germany - 75.2%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 7. Finland - 75.8%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 6. Netherlands - 79.5%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 5. Denmark - 80.1%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 3. Sweden - 82.6% (tie)

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 3. Norway - 82.6% (tie)

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 2. Iceland - 87%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>

  • 1. Korea - 97.5%

    Percentage of households with access to broadband Internet. Source: <a href="http://www.oecd.org/sti/broadbandandtelecom/oecdbroadbandportal.htm" target="_hplink">OECD</a>