An Akamai Technologies report called “Pirates in the Outfield” has shown that the recent Godzilla, Wonder woman and Cruella flicks are some of the most pirated films of 2021.
Akamai’s research illustrated how online piracy continues to be prevalent across and financially detrimental to, a variety of industries.
Evidently, between January and September 2021, global piracy demand reached 3.7 billion unlicensed streams and downloads.
The costs associated with these activities were analysed by the US Chamber of Commerce which valued piracy’s impact to be a cool $29.2 billion ($A41.28) billion on the domestic economy alone.
Discussing the matter, security researcher and author of the report, Steve Ragan, said, “Piracy is an ongoing battle, and there’s no silver bullet to address each type of piracy online.”
“As content developers get better at guarding against piracy, criminals are adapting their methods to access protected content.”
While many people have no sour grapes with watching pirated content for free, Ragan adds, “The impact of piracy goes far beyond stolen movies and other content.”
“The real cost is behind the scenes, leading to the loss of livelihood for those who work to create the movies, films, books and software we all consume and enjoy.”
Privacy Trends
In addition to the unrelenting demand for pirated materials, the report revealed several other takeaways:
- A total of 132 billion visits to piracy websites occurred between January 2021 and September 2021.
- Globally, the United States (13.5 billion), followed by Russia (7.2 billion), India (6.5 billion), China (5.9 billion), and Brazil (4.5 billion), were the top five locations for piracy website visits last year.
- The top pirated industries were television (67 billion total visits), publishing (30 billion total visits), film (14.5 billion total visits), music (10.8 billion total visits) and software (8.9 billion total visits).
Below are the most pirated films and television shows between January-September 2021:
James Mason, CTO, MUSO noted, “The vast scale of privacy is clear.”
But, “perhaps more concerningly, in many areas, piracy is still a growing problem, with an overall 16 per cent increase on the previous nine-month period.”
While piracy clearly isn’t a simple, clear-cut issue, the report concluded that organisations can put defences in place and can tighten the reigns on escalating situations.
For example, in the most plagued areas of broadcasting and streaming, Ragan recommends addressing workflow issues and API-based problems.
Moreover, an effective anti-piracy strategy should be underpinned by an understanding of criminal behaviour and strategies.
