Rising Trend & Dangers of Digital Piracy
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was first released in 1998 with the principal goal of reducing online piracy. After 24 years, digital piracy is still a widespread thorny problem.
Stunning Digital Piracy Statistics
Latest statistics on online piracy show that this issue doesn’t just happen on a specific form of digital content. It spreads to every type of digital products, from ebooks, photos to videos, and even music.
Video Piracy
Ebook Piracy
Image Theft
Video Piracy Statistics
- 63% of the US people admit to illegally streaming or downloading videos weekly (Statista, Sandvine).
- Pirated videos get over 230 billion views per year (Forbes & Statista).
- 30% of the Australian population pays for streaming video services, but 15% still steals videos (Guardian).
Ebook Piracy Statistics
- Over 31,5 million ebooks were illegally downloaded in 2017 (Statinvestor).
- Public or open torrent sites are the cause of 31% of illegal ebook downloads in the US (Digimarc).
- 37% of users wouldn’t steal ebooks if it became too technically difficult to do so.
Image Theft Statistics
- Over 2.5 billion images are stolen worldwide daily.
- 33.9% of image copyright violations come from North America.
- The following are Europe and Asia with 31.4% and 29.38% respectively.
Digital Piracy Seriously Hurts Your Business
Digital piracy causes billions of dollars in global revenue losses. Its victims are not only creators, publishers, and distributors but also the global economy.
Waste Time & Effort
You put a lot of effort into producing intellectual products and deserve the money from your copyrights. However, it just takes thieves a click to steal and reshare them. What else frustrates you more?
Suffer Revenue Loss
The US content creation industry is considerably impacted by digital piracy, with $29.2 to $71 billion annually lost due to digital video theft. Your business could suffer the same without any protection solution.
Damage Business Reputation
Your products can become available everywhere on the Internet. This problem may involve your business in copyright violation and infringement.
How Thieves Steal Your Digital Products
Content thieves use various tricks to steal and share your intellectual products without permission.
Find through Search Engines
Google bots crawl and index all content on your site, including pages and media files.
Consequently, users can discover your e-files on result pages by guessing their names or URLs.
Resell Digital Products
You may not notice, but many people buy your ebooks or photography then resell them to others at a much lower price.
‘Why do you offer the same product as others but at a higher price?’ ‘Who does this product originally belong to?’ Users will keep wondering about this.
Share Guest Checkout Pages or Product Links
You can either redirect customers to a thank you page with the digital product link or send the downloadable file to their inbox after successful purchases.
Chances are that your customers share this thank you page or forward the email.
Share Customer Accounts
Your customers may give their login details on e-commerce sites to others so they can freely access and download products.
You need to block the IP addresses of strangers. Even with correct usernames and passwords, they find no ways to log in and access your premium files.
Who Needs Digital File Protection?
Everyone owning digital files and artworks should secure your files, whether you’re making money from them or earning membership.
Video Course Providers
Imagine you find your tutorial, training, or consulting videos on search results? Such a nightmare! You lose many things, students, income, and also business reputation!
It requires you to secure your videos so that only learners can view them. Allow paid members to watch without downloading them, even using video downloaders.
Ebook Sellers
You’ve spent a lot of time writing, designing, and improving your ebooks. Then, someone just steals them in seconds.
You need to make your PDF books private so readers without paying wouldn’t be able to open them.
Artists
Your photography, online comics, and comic character designs are always the targets of digital pirates. Without a protection method, you’re leaving your intellectual property to the wrong hand.
Designers
Design portfolios greatly assist you in impressing clients. So don’t let people copy your designs and publish them on the Internet.
You must secure your designs so that only clients have access to them. This also helps you avoid copyright violation issues.
Researchers
Making money from academic research requires collecting data, analyzing them, and writing your paper. Protect your valuable case studies and data so you can earn the money you deserve. Anyone who wants to refer to them must pay for the resource or register as a member.
