People can disagree about whether anti-piracy laws go too far or not far enough, whether and how the copyright law should be updated, or whether or not piracy can provide any benefits to those being pirated. One thing that cannot be argued, however, is the size of the piracy problem. We know it’s big—really big. But just how big is it?
Turns out, it’s big enough that 327 million people sought out infringing material online in the first month of 2013 alone. That’s an increase of almost 10% in 15 months, and makes up a whopping 26% of the total Internet user population, according to a report published today by NetNames called “Sizing the Piracy Universe.”
The number is even more staggering when you consider what it means for the future of Internet piracy. It’s not likely that these pirates are the AARP card holders who use the Internet mainly for email and web surfing. Consider how many younger, web-savvy Internet users must have a pirating habit to comprise that 26% of total Internet users. Next time you ride the metro, look to your left and right–at least one of you is probably consuming infringing material on a regular basis.
If that seems dismal, there’s at least one hopeful figure in the report. The portion of Internet users who use cyberlocker sites to access infringing material has dropped by almost 8%. This significant drop is largely due to criminal action by the U.S. and other governments against Megaupload in New Zealand. Shortly after this action many other cyberlockers shuttered and many infringing users migrated elsewhere. This shows the impact that one strategic, well-publicized enforcement action can have on the entire piracy landscape. We certainly need more of these wins if we are going to make a dent in the piracy problem.
Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA. Follow Keith on Twitter at @keithkup and sign up for the Intellectual Property Roundup weekly newsletter here.