New research conducted by the Australian and UK Governments shows Australia has high levels of online copyright infringement that reinforce the need for international and industry cooperation to address piracy.

Both countries conducted surveys between March and May this year to measure online copyright infringement across different content types, with the Australian research closely modelled on the UK approach, which has been running since 2012.

The Australian survey carried out 2,630 interviews and found nearly half (43 per cent) of Australians who had consumed digital content in the period surveyed had consumed at least one of those files illegally, compared to only a fifth in the UK. The UK survey identified an increase in the take up of legal services since 2013.

The results highlight the importance of international collaboration to help understand the reasons for online copyright infringement, establish benchmarks, and share solutions.

The results also underscore the importance of governments working with industry to address infringement issues, and that a range of measures are needed to properly tackle the problem.

The Australian survey found people would likely stop infringing if legal content was: cheaper (39 per cent), more available (38 per cent), and had the same release date as other countries (36 per cent). Some 43 per cent of internet users stated that they were not confident of what is legal online content.