Pirate: It’s a big brake on creativity.

Unauthorized use and distribution of copyrighted content has a long history that predates the invention of cinema and recorded music.

Piracy is a practice that is accepted by society and not pursued by the authorities without understanding the harmful effects it has on the creative industry and the moral degradation it creates for the creators of this vital cultural sector.

The damage of piracy on the creative industry

We remember famous episodes like Napster, the music file-sharing platform that once had 80 million monthly users and was a major challenge to the powerful music industry. In response to claims of copyright infringement, Napster implemented a filter to block unauthorized songs within 72 hours. However, in the end, it was decided to pay the industry 26 million dollars and stop its activities after failing to prove the effectiveness of this practice.

Following a reevaluation of its business and stock, Napster transformed into a subscription-based music service that bears no resemblance to its original model. However, this new model has been replicated by many other companies beyond the music industry.

In recent times, stock image website Getty Images filed a lawsuit against Stability AI. Copyrighted images Without permission to train the Stable Diffusion AI model.

These are just a few examples of the irreparable damage that piracy is doing to the creative industry, which is only increasing. 3% of global GDP.

Piracy in technology and digital society

This illegal practice presents itself as a multifaceted challenge and is extremely complex to solve. Tackling piracy requires collaborative efforts from various stakeholders, including authorities, forums, users and those responsible for managing intellectual property rights.

In today’s landscape, piracy has become increasingly sophisticated, largely due to the technological capabilities of pirates. This leads to the distribution or reproduction of high-quality illegal content, leading many consumers to choose these options, often without realizing that they are consuming unauthorized content.

But these technological advances allow those charged with combating piracy to implement mechanisms to identify and remove unauthorized content from platforms. However, finding and implementing such strategies is costly.

Social awareness

Much remains to be done in terms of social awareness of this crime. For example, several studies have shown that users who abuse the shared accounts offered by many audiovisual or music platforms are not considered pirates because “someone” is paying them.

The illegal broadcasting of live events by pirate platforms is particularly prominent in sports. It is important to point out that the cost of obtaining sports licenses is very high. Piracy of this content results in a significant reduction in the income of these sports rights holders.

The danger of disintegration of the rule

Currently, a significant factor in the fight against content piracy is the need for standardized protocols among intermediaries that determine the appropriate actions to be taken when responding to requests or notifications to stop illegal activities. This challenge is not only technical in nature, but also related to regulatory conditions at national and international levels.

Although there are European laws that allow us to make progress as legislative instruments in the field of anti-piracy 2001 InfoSoc Guideof IPRED Directive (Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive) of 2004 or the 2019 Copyright Policy.

The lack of a standardized protocol of action at EU level has led some member states to adopt their own procedures at national level. For example, a recent sectoral agreement between French Internet service providers has proven effective in combating piracy of live sports. However, such national-level approaches risk fragmentation within the EU, which can hinder coordinated efforts in a digital environment where jurisdictional boundaries are often blurred.

European initiative to fight piracy

European institutions are fully aware of the need to provide effective tools to combat piracy. To prevent this criminal activity, they have taken concrete steps to coordinate the efforts of various stakeholders.

The recent adoption of the Digital Services Act by the European Parliament introduced new mechanisms for users to report illegal online content. In addition, it allows platforms to cooperate with special “trusted flags” to find and remove illegal content while ensuring necessary safeguards.

In the year 30 minutes after the start of the event.

For this reason, the European Commission was put into action last May 3^rd round up Suggestion live content robbery, taking into account the specific characteristics and social and economic impact of such transfers. While expectations were raised regarding the deadline, the Commission’s response was not particularly ambitious. Establishes a follow-up period for the above recommendations that we believe is excessively long. If the recommendations fail to effectively protect our European creative and sports industries, further measures – including legislation – will be taken after this monitoring period.

We believe that the Commission’s invitation to the EUIPO Observatory to help monitor the impact of this proposal on online sports piracy and other live events will help to assess the impact of this proposal.

The importance of public-private cooperation

It is crucial not to allow ourselves to be pirated. There are many ongoing challenges, such as advertising of major brands entering pirate websites and funding this illegal activity, which must be prioritized.

The Internet has facilitated the democratization of knowledge, creativity, and cultural content that is now accessible to anyone with Internet access. Copyright protection of this content requires a collaborative effort between the public and private sectors. This collaboration is important because of the complexity of the phenomenon that prevents creators from being adequately compensated for their efforts (and resources) in their work. Additionally, states suffer from reduced public revenue due to the loss of taxes generated from pirated content.

As of 2011 Consultancy firm Grupo Ático34In the year In 2021 alone, the volume of pirated or illegally obtained content reached 5,334 million units, with a market value of 32,492 million euros.

At Telefonica, we believe that the basic principles governing Internet activities should be consistent with those applied offline. Because there should be no right to access relevant products or services offered by third parties, whether online or offline. Therefore, we support all initiatives taken by European institutions to protect the rights of authors and creators.