Kirk,
The volume in a library in terms of density of information in novels and books and periodicals, not to mention video materials, easily matches what’s on BitTorrent.

However, most of it is older material. If anything, the materials you mention have a more salient difference — their newness — which beats libraries. And perhaps leads to compulsive downloading of them.

Maybe the problem isn’t the amount of information — it’s the amount of *new* information people seek out and have to work for, rather than a leisurely walk through a library, it’s a manic race to get the latest download of whatever is in vogue.