The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) published a new report on Wednesday 27 November showing that online consumption of pirated films, television programmes and music in the EU is declining.
This report uses data collected over a 21-month period, between January 2017 and September 2018, as well as data from Eurostat and the European Audiovisual Observatory. It shows that, during this period, access to pirated content decreased by 15.1% in the Twenty-Eight. The most significant decrease was observed for music (32%), followed by movies (19%) and television programs (8%). However, piracy differs greatly from one State to another. For example, in 2018, the average internet user in the EU accessed pirated content 9.7 times a month, ranging from almost 26 times a month in Latvia and Lithuania to less than four times a month in Finland.
The Office announces a follow-up study in 2020 on the consumption of individual pirated films, possibly compared to the legal consumption of the corresponding content (e.g. box office receipts). The Office also highlights the results of another survey conducted for EUIPO by the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) at the University of Bournemouth (UK) on illegal IPTV in the EU, i.e. IP-based television. A study showing that IPTV providers infringing intellectual property rights are collecting 1 billion euros from illegally broadcast works. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)