Study: Aussie online piracy stabilises as site blocks and virus fears kick in

A new study on on-line screen piracy in Australia shows that it has stabilised in the past 12 months since the last research was done.

Commissioned by anti-piracy organisation Creative Content Australia (CCA), it shows that the amount of adults (aged 18—64) who admit to some form of piracy remains at 21%.

However, the late teen demo remains a problem, with the highest admission to piracy and highest use of copyright infringing apps. 

The study found that the level of teenagers who acknowledge that piracy is theft is the highest since 2006.

But they are not buying the screen industry’s protests that piracy hurts creative people or that the content industry could collapse. 

Of the 23% of those in their teen years who call themselves active pirates, 27% are female and 20% are male.

CCA Executive Director Lori Flekser believes a combination of factors contributed to a levelling out of levels.

These include an increase in subscriptions to streaming services, the presence of site blocks and the prevalence of malware.

Flekser says it is encouraging that researched showed that the majority of pirates have experienced a blocked site when searching for pirated content. 

“Our research was conducted between September 14 to 19 so it is too early to measure the response to the latest (August 2017) site blocks as the Federal Court ruling, ordering 59 site blocks, did not commence until mid- September.

“The CCA data only provides a preliminary snapshot of the impact of the blocks.

“Prior to this, only five sites had been blocked. We know from other research that site blocking is effective, and our research confirms that most pirates have encountered a site block.”

She reckons the Australian Incopro study (May 2017) – based on the five sites blocked in December-February – shows combined usage of the blocked sites and associated proxies decreased by 59.6% since blocking began in September 2016.

This is a finding consistent with usage patterns in other countries.

The study also found that after reaching a blocked site, whilst half of Australians are turning to a legal source to access the same content, 77% of adults and 74% of teens are searching for an alternative infringing site for the same content.

Information on where to find access to pirate content come from mostly social engines (58%) and friends and family (56%) as well as social media (27%) and online forums (26%).

CCA Chairman Graham Burke emphasise it is time that search engines step up to do their share in fighting piracy.

Burke points out, “Site blocking works and we have shut the front door of the department store by removing the big sign ‘Free Stolen Goods’.

“But as the processes to remove ‘mirror’ sites (same car different number plates) are slow, search engines are blatantly thumbing their noses at Australian law and courts by leading people to the back door. “

First-time research on Australians’ use of set-top boxes and infringing apps called them ‘piracy’s new frontier’.

Set-top boxes and their software are not illegal. They allow viewers to watch online services on their TV sets including legal services like Netflix. 

However, apps can be downloaded that allows ‘add-ons’ to seek out unlicensed content and deliver pirated movies and TV shows with ease.

Of the 31% of Australians aged 12-64 who watch movies or TV shows through a set-top box, CCA research shows one in four teens uses infringing content apps to access pirated content.

Amongst adults, that figure is one in five. Use of set-top boxes has been shown to compromise subscriptions to legitimate services.

57% of teen respondents stream via an Australian online subscription service’ (Netflix, Stan, Foxtel).

51% stream or download a movie and 48% a TV series legally from a legitimate content site. From pay-per-view, 27% access movies and 22% TV shows 

22% use a VPN (virtual private network) to access movies or TV from overseas websites geoblocked in Australia (like Netflix US, Hulu, BBC Player UK and Amazon Movies US