In 2023, every day Italians accomplished approximately 300 thousand acts of piracy involving fiction and non-fiction books, university books, professional books and databases. Seven out of ten people believe they are unlikely to be punished. It is equal to 705 million euros the value of sales that piracy takes away from the world of books every year, equal to 28% of the overall market (excluding the school sector and exports), more than a quarter of the total. For the country system, i.e. also calculating related activities such as logistics, services and more, the loss is 1.75 billion per year, for the tax authorities 298 million per year. Values that translate into one loss of employment for 4,900 people in the book world, 12,000 related jobs.
In the last two years, the percentage of people who say they are aware that piracy acts are illicit or illegal has not changed (it was 82% in 2021 and now it is 79%) and the percentage of those who believe it is unlikely to be punished remains high (70%). People must be aware that they are committing an offense and know that they can be punished for it.
The estimate of the size of piracy in the world of books in 2023 (the survey is from October 2023 and concerns the previous 12 months) is contained in third research on the topic commissioned by the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) to Ipsos and presented in Rome during a conference organized by Gli Editori, the consultation and joint action agreement between AIE and the Italian Federation of Newspaper Publishers (FIEG). Compared to the survey presented in 2022, the economic damage is essentially stable in trade publishing (fiction and non-fiction books sold in physical and online bookstores and in supermarkets, in print and digital). It is decreasing in university publishing – where however it remains higher than the legal market value – and professional (books and databases) but only because different, complementary if not substitutive tools are being added to university books (see Talents Venture survey for AIE here ).
Estimated acts of piracy in 2023 (fewer copies of books sold, fewer downloads of ebooks and audiobooks, licenses) are 108.4 million against 117.6 million in 2021, down 8%. However, it means 297 thousand acts of piracy carried out every day against the world of books. Piracy is widespread throughout the book publishing world: lost sales in the miscellaneous sector amount to 35 million copies per year, for a sales value of 423 million euros. The copies (printed and digital books) lost in the university sector are 5 million, equal to a sales value of 188 million euros; those in the professional sector – books, ebooks and databases – amount to 2.4 million copies, with a loss in value of 94 million euros. If you look at lost sales by channel, online stores have a loss of 416 million euros, physical bookshops 234 million, lost subscription revenue is 55 million. Publishing loses 705 million due to phenomena linked to illegal behaviour. euros and 4,900 direct jobs.
The loss for the country system – therefore also counting related industries and estimated on the basis of ISTAT calculation models – is 1.75 billion euros, a loss of revenue for the tax authorities of 298 million euros. The lack of new employment (direct and indirect) is 12,000 units.
Just under one in three Italians (31% of the population over 15 years old, they were 35% two years ago), has committed at least one act of editorial piracy in the last year. Specifically, 20% have downloaded an ebook or audiobook for free at least once from illegal sites or sources on the Internet, 16% have received at least one ebook from friends/family, 8% have received at least one book from friends/acquaintances photocopied, 8% have purchased at least one photocopied book, 6% have received a subscription or access codes from friends to use ebooks and audiobooks. If we look at the specific sectors of university publishing and professional publishing users, the situation is more alarming.
78% of university students committed at least one act of piracy during the year (81% two years ago). The most common behaviors are downloading materials for free from the Internet (36%), receiving free ebooks and other digital materials from classmates and friends (33%), printing or having a book printed in an electronic format at a copy shop (28%). If we instead take into consideration the universe of freelancers (lawyers, notaries, accountants, engineers, architects and others), 49% of them have carried out at least one act of piracy in the last year (it was 56% two years ago) . Downloading materials from illegal sites (25%), printing materials from digital formats (21%), downloading or receiving professional databases for free (19%) are the most widespread behaviors.
“Piracy damages the professional future of thousands of boys and girls: the fight comes from tracking uploaders and their money flows” explains the president of the Italian Publishers Association Innocenzo Cipolletta. As IEA, we believe that the framework can be further improved, if only tools were introduced that allow the prosecution of those who profit from piracy. Most of the time, acts of piracy are not committed “by” the sites (on which we most often focus), but “through” the sites, by “uploaders” who derive an illicit profit from them, often with systems that they hide money flows. For this reason, the “follow the money” path must be facilitated as much as possible, forcing the platforms and suppliers of the means of payment involved, even if established abroad, to reveal information on the subjects who make available often enormous quantities of file”.
“The piracy of intellectual works is a central theme for the entire editorial content industry for both books and newspapers – says the president of the Italian Federation of Newspaper Publishers, Andrea Monti Riffeser – Newspapers are affected by various digital piracy phenomena: illicit diffusion through illegal websites, social channels and press reviews created and distributed without the authorization of the rights holders. The use of newspapers in radio and television programs should also be given attention. In fact, without prejudice to the primacy of freedom of information and reporting, the current rules exclude the free and indiscriminate use of articles and anything else published in newspapers and magazines. In the absence of express authorization from the publishers, the use of the articles must take place under agreed conditions and within predetermined limits. The extent of the phenomenon also requires widespread user education: for this reason, a public awareness campaign could achieve significant results. The publishers – concludes Riffeser – hope for interventions to make the enforcement measures and sanctions effective for people who carry out acts of piracy, considering that the percentage of those who believe it is unlikely to be punished is always very high”.
#Piracy #world #books #newspapers #billion #smoke #year
– 2024-03-14 16:46:25
