Akamai Technologies, a globally trusted solution for protecting and delivering digital services, released a research stressing that persistent online piracy has been biting the US’ economy at $ 29.2 billion loss in revenue each year.

Titled ‘Pirates in the Outfield’, the new research is Akamai’s latest State of the Internet / Security report examines the evolving piracy landscape.

Conducted in collaboration with MUSCO, responsible for the provision of data on streaming and download pircay activity across several industries, warns that online piracy is ever rampant as well as financially detrimental to many industries.

The report's findings reveal that online piracy is one of the most challenging and complex issues for businesses to handle. Piracy is a security risk both within businesses and as a potential attack vector to guard against significant intellectual property (IP) breaches.

Between January and September 2021, global piracy demand reached 3.7 billion unlicensed streams and downloads, as assessed by visits to websites allowing access to movies and television series, either directly through a browser or mobile application, as well as torrent downloads. According to the research, 61.5 percent of users who visited piracy sites did so directly, while 28.6 percent actively sought them out.

“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,” says Steve Ragan, security researcher, Akamai and author of the report.

“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”, continues Ragan.

“When examining piracy globally and across the film, TV, software, publishing, and music industries, the vast scale of piracy is clear. Perhaps more concerningly, in many areas, piracy is still a growing problem, with an overall 16 percent increase on the previous nine-month period,” says James Mason, CTO of MUSO.

Key Takeaways from the Research
● A total of 132 billion visits to piracy websites occurred between January 2021 and September 2021

● 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, which includes video games and modern PC software (8.9 billion total visits)

● 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

“As highlighted by our partnering with Akamai on this report, working collaboratively to deeply understand the latest trends within piracy’s ever-changing ecosystem is key to forming effective anti-piracy strategies, as opposed to combating piracy in silos”, adds Mason.