According to a September 2024 report by IPHouse and published by Digital Citizens Alliance (DCA), global piracy has quietly become a massive $2 billion-plus illegal industry that works in concert with other criminal entities, creating a substantial risk to Americans.
Many consumers remain unaware that the piracy sites are designed do harm by injecting ransomware, spyware, trojan horses and other malware into consumer devices. The operators of these sites are largely out of the reach of U.S. civil and criminal enforcement. The report further reinforces prior findings that online platforms continue to enable pirates to exploit consumers.
Site blocking, the practice of using technological interventions to make illicit Web sites inaccessible, has become a widespread countermeasure against piracy. This DCA report concludes that the practice has proven to be effective in more than 50 countries. Site blocking overcomes jurisdictional obstacles and enables courts to issue enforceable orders while protecting network and infrastructure intermediaries from liability for actions taken against infringing sites says the report.
The report descibes, in non-technical terms, how organized piracy works, and business and technical models for both illicit video-on-demand (VOD) and live-streaming. It also cites examples of piracy operations still in existence, including VidSrc, 123movies and StreamEast, which not only reach consumers directly but also are content sources for other pirates.
DCA also tasked IP House to look at the body of evidence about site-blocking, including its effectiveness in combating piracy and any harmful consequences it has caused.
Conclusions
The report makes three major conclusions (quoting):
- “Site-blocking efforts are effective. For example, in the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Australia, when piracy sites were blocked, traffic to those sites decreased substantially, by 89 percent in the United Kingdom, 70 percent in Portugal, and 69 percent in Australia.
- “Site-blocking appears to encourage more people to use legitimate streaming services. For example, when site-blocking was implemented in India it resulted in a one-year 8 percent increase in lawful streaming. In Brazil, site-blocking measures led to a 5 percent boost in lawful streaming.
- “While opponents of site-blocking have in the past claimed that it would “break the Internet” and limit free speech, IP House’s study of the 50-plus countries that have implemented it found those fears haven’t come to pass. Specifically, there has been no discernible harm done to the workings of the Internet, no impact on legitimate websites, and no impingement on legitimate speech.”
The report backs these claims with documentation and statistical measurement from many sources.
Further reading
Combatting the overseas digital piracy threat: New report shows how the United States can deter overseas criminals who illegal target Americans. Press release. September 19, 2024. Digital Citizens Alliance
Overseas and out of reach. International video piracy and US options to combat it. Full report (PDF) .Released September 19, 2024. IP House (commissioned by Digital Citizens Alliance)
DCA report: Pirates, ‘malvertisers’ and ransomware make ‘Unholy Triangle.’ Article. September 2022. Piracy Monitor
Why it matters
Organizations that advocate against piracy around the world have worked both publicly and behind the scenes to press regulators toward enacting site blocking legislation. For one, the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) works directly with government agencies and legislatures of countries in the South Asia region. For another, the Motion Picture Association’s Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) regularly announces wins against pirates that include redirecting visitors to pirate domains that it has shut down, to its Watch Legally site. Piracy Monitor has chronicled site blocking efforts by these organizations and others, extensively.
However, the report reminds us that many piracy operators are “sophisticated criminals who have created piracy syndicates, structured like multinational enterprises, requiring employees with a range of talents to operate savvy and technically robust multi-million-dollar operations. Piracy VOD services employ skilled tech teams that design attractive websites and apps, marketing and customer support teams to attract and retain customers, and security teams to implement countermeasures to protect the site from being shut down by authorities.”
