Digital pirates exploit the fact that most traffic on a platform comes through search engines and social media redirects. They have gained expertise in tweaking SEO results and using social media to make their pirated content accessible more conveniently than legitimate content. They make it difficult for even the informed users to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate content, robbing IP rights holders of their fair share of the revenue. Once these pirated sites are identified as “free sources” of high-quality content, direct visits to these websites snowball. This then results in most visits to piracy websites being via direct access.

Image Source: MUSO

Digital piracy is rampant due to virtual private networks and p-to-p sharing software, indicating that the actual numbers of illegal content distribution might be higher than most researchers can identify. Here’s an insight into how digital piracy is not only damaging the earnings of content owners but the economy too.

Visits to Piracy Sites by Sector

There was an increase of 29.3% in the number of visits to piracy websites in the first quarter of 2022, as compared to the first quarter of 2021. This was driven largely by easier access to various types of pirated content.

The publishing industry saw a whopping 58.5% increase in visits to piracy sites, followed by films at 42.5%.  The hike in piracy for TV content, music and software industries stood at 19.2%, 13.9% and 9.6%, respectively, in Q1 2022, as compared to Q1 2021.

The below chart depicts industry-wise demand for piracy in the first quarter of 2022.

Image Source: MUSO

Countries with the Highest Piracy

Digital content is consumed in the form of videos (movies, TV shows, sports streaming), audio (podcasts, book readings, music), software (Windows, word processors, drivers, subscription-based tools), games (all kinds of interactive content falls under this category) and eBooks (academic, non-academic, religious). All forms of digital media are available on websites that buy or illegally access the content from copyright owners and distribute to their customers across the globe. The top 10 countries with the most visits to piracy websites in Q3 of 2021 were:

The United States stands head and shoulders above the rest of the world in terms of pirated content consumption. What is disturbing is that countries like Switzerland, Germany and Netherlands have almost non-existent copyright laws. The reasoning behind this is that downloading content from any source for personal use is legal, unless it is uploaded or used to make profits.

It relieves the users of the responsibility of verifying the source and helps fuel access to pirated sites without the consumers feeling guilty about copyright infringement. While users gain the advantage of free or significantly cheaper access to content, content owners bear losses. Also, countries that reportedly have “very little piracy” tend to be profitable markets for the burgeoning piracy industry. A few countries turning a blind eye to copyright issues have made piracy a bigger problem in Europe than in any other continent.

Impact of Piracy

The impact of piracy is not limited to the content creation industry but is borne by the entire economy. At the global level, internet piracy consumes 23.8% of internet bandwidth across three key regions, North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

In the US, the country with the highest piracy, for instance, the digital content production and distribution sector is estimated lose anywhere between 11% and 24% of its annual revenue due to digital video piracy. This accounts for losses of $29.2 billion to $71.0 billion annually. Music piracy, on the other hand, costs 70,000 jobs per year to the national economy. In addition to this, eBook piracy is causing American publishers lose $300 million annually, while the gaming industry suffers a $17.5 billion blow due to piracy. In addition, 40% of the total software being used in the country is unpaid for.

What Can Be Done?

The internet can be both the cause of the problem and its solution. Piracy cannot be eradicated completely but it can be contained. Content creators and distributors need to take responsibility to protect themselves and their assets against cybercriminals. An initial step to controlling piracy is tracking the flow of content, which requires bookmarking it at the source. This ensures that wherever the content travels, it has a tag that can help identify its legitimacy. The rest of the protection can be left to the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

AI and ML are two technologies that when combined can sift through trillions of datasets to identify download patterns and flag anomalies. Together they form a powerful tool that can help pinpoint and disrupt data flowing through illegal channels. Mediastalker is on a mission to help content creators and distributors keep their content their own.

We offer plug-and-play tools developed using cutting-edge technology to protect intellectual property rights and online identity. Our solutions are enhanced to support content protection for any kind of digital content. Our tools can be used to protect video streams, pre-published content, games, eBooks and digital photos.

We also provide consultation, action points, and AI/ML-based solutions to our clients to understand the level of their digital footprint. Through this knowledge, illegal content distribution points are identified and blocked in real-time. Our tools come with performance reports to show how effectively the anti-piracy setup is working to prevent your revenue from being drained by criminals.

Contact us to learn how we can help you protect your intellectual property and maximise its monetisation.