Computer piracy exists all over the world: illegally music, movies, series, games, books downloading… This is often because of the high prices of legal content or because people simply want to buy them free of charge.
In 2018, Google has removed more than 837 million web addresses and plans to do the same with YouTube. On the other hand, a University of Amsterdam study, Global Online Piracy Study, admits that hackers are the most legally buying content on the Internet.
This study funded by indicates that online piracy worldwide has declined. Between 2014 and 2017, it declined in all European countries. Except for Germany, where piracy is already quite unusual (along with Indonesia and Japan).
Google also cut off the advertising of piracy distributor sites, preventing around 10 million ads from circulating on those sites. In addition, steps were taken to prevent spammed content on Google Drive, the purpose of which was to bulk download. Piracy is also being fought in the Play Store, in which 250,000 applications have been removed. These violated Google’s terms and conditions of use in combating piracy.
But does piracy have only one bad side?
Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio Mobile (producers of Angry Birds), has a less negative opinion about computer piracy. He thinks it’s a way to attract more fans to the brand, even if they do not spend money on the products. He says “it may not be a bad thing: at the end of the day, it can bring us more business”. He also says that he has withdrawn important lessons from the music industry, especially in the way he sees consumers. The music industry “stopped treating consumers as users and began treating them as fans.”
The Global Online Piracy Study has presented three possible effects of online piracy on acquisition of legal content: positive, neutral and negative.
Positives
It introduces consumers to new musical genres and artists, new films and books, creating a new need. As a result, it encourages the willingness to pay to go to concerts (in the case of music) and purchase related merchandise (music, games, movies, etc.). It also increases the popularity of products and content.
Neutrals
Some consumers who illegally download content no longer wanted to buy anyway.
Negatives
The biggest negative effect is the substitution effect: it replaces the acquisition of content or trips to the cinema. It means that after acquiring the content illegally, the consumer may not buy right away.
This negative effect that motivates Google to combat piracy. The aim is to defend copyright and to ensure that computer piracy does not generate more profits to those who distribute the content illegally.