Piracy Set to Cost Billions

The rapid growth of illegal file sharing over the internet is set to cost European countries over £200m in the next 5 years as well as costing around 1.2m jobs in Europe.

A study that has been endorsed by trade unions and commissioned by an industry body has been conducted in order to estimate the increasing impact that this form of piracy is having in Italy, Spain, France, the UK and Germany.

The report is claiming that the problem is set to cost the UK alone around 250,000 jobs by 2015, however certain campaigners are dismissing the study as nothing but corporate propaganda.’

Piracy cost the UK’s creative industries 1.4bn Euros in 2008 according to the study, conducted by economics firm TERA Consultants on behalf of the International Chamber of Commerce, a relatively small amount when compared to the projected figures, these have been set down as a ‘worst case scenario’ but the problem is becoming a quickly growing concern.

Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC, said that the results showed piracy was a "major threat to the creative industries in terms of loss of employment and revenues".

"If there was ever the proof needed to demonstrate why the Digital Economy Bill is imperative for the protection of our creative industries, this report is it," he said.

The Digital Economy Bill which he referred to was outlined last year as part of the Queen’s speech in November and includes several proposals set down in order to tackle illegal file sharing.  One of which is known as the ‘three strikes,’ this would see persistent pirates eventually cut off from the net altogether.

Another element is set to give the courts the power to block certain websites if they are deemed to infringe upon copyright laws.  It is thought that the bill may well be rushed through the House of Commons before the general election after already being passed by the House of Lords.

The Digital Economy Bill is however facing rising oppositions from a number of forms who believe that it will impact upon and undermine free speech on the internet without necessarily reducing the number of copyright breeches, BT, Google and Facebook are amongst the firms opposing the bill.

A further opposition campaign has also begun that is aimed at getting people to write to their MP in order to make sure the bill is not rushed through the House of Commons without conducting any ‘proper debate’ regarding it.

A member of the Open Rights Group (ORG), Jim Killock has voiced his opinions fronting the opposition of the bill.

"I am fed up of hearing corporate propaganda being deployed in order to justify intrusions on our rights to freedom of speech, privacy and to a fair trial," he said.

"We have no truck with infringement of copyright, but it is shameful that anyone from the Labour movement can attempt to justify removal of vital services such as the internet as a punishment."

According to the ORG, music industry group BPI had drafted certain amendments to the original bill proposed to the Lords, however these were not passed.

“Members of the Labour movement spent decades fighting for people's rights to basic services, education, and political organisation: they need to ask themselves where their true values lie," said Mr Killock.

"Are they with Gordon Brown's call to recognise the internet as just as vital for the today's citizens as water, gas and electricity; or are they with music industry lobbyists, calling on Parliament to infringe people's human rights?"

The report has been made using the current 24% annual growths that illegal file sharing has seen.  

Furthermore, European creative industries employed over 14 million people in 2008 and generated well over 14bn Euros.  However, it also state that a further 10bn Euros could have been generated, but was lost across Europe along with 186,000 jobs due to piracy.

The figures are estimates based on if it continues to grow at a similar rate until 2015.  If it does, the UK alone is set to lose 7.8bn Euros and according to the government, UK creative industries currently employ around 2 million people, many of which may lose their jobs if the growth continues.

The president of the International Actors’ Federation, Agnete Haaland, a supporter of the research has said that she believes education is the key in order to tackle piracy.

"We should change the word piracy," she said.

"To me, piracy is something adventurous, it makes you think about Johnny Depp,” referring to the extremely popular Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy.  

"But we're talking about a criminal act. We're talking about making it impossible to make a living from what you do."

She has also urged the European Parliament to implement new rules in order to tackle online piracy.

Posted at 11:27AM Mar 18, 2010 by Marc Stenton in The Economy  |  Comments[0]