The European Intellectual Property Office recently published a study conducted between January 2017 and December 2020 on the progression of piracy in Europe, for TV programs, music and films. Several hacking methods have come under scrutiny, such as streaming, downloading, torrenting and ripping, both on mobile and desktop. The 28 Member States were studied, for a total of 133 billion accesses.
Hacking globally down since 2018
Overall, it emerges that pirating has decreased over this period for all types of content, except for a temporary resumption of film content in spring 2020, i.e. during the first confinement following the health crisis (see illustration below). above). In figures, piracy fell by 20% in 2018, by 6% in 2019, and by 34% in 2020. On average, the European Internet user accessed 5.9 pirated content per month in 2020, but it is note that France is below this average.
Visible link between decrease in piracy and availability of legal offers
The study also updates a relationship between the proportion of young people (15 to 24 years old) in the population, and film piracy. The differences observed in the piracy phenomenon from one country to another can be explained by socio-economic factors such as income inequality and, of course, the awareness of the existence of legal offers for consumers.
