Music piracy has fallen in the UK

"The number of Britons that are illegally downloading music is decreasing, according to new custom research from YouGov.
YouGov’s Music Report reveals that one in ten Britons (10 per cent) download music illegally, down from 18 per cent five years ago.
This number looks set to decrease. While 63 per cent of those that illegally download music expect to still be doing so in five years, 22 per cent do not. Added to this, 36 per cent say that using unverified sources to access music is becoming more difficult.
This decrease can be in part attributed to the rise of streaming services. Over six in ten (63 per cent) that have stopped illegally downloading music now use streaming services."

Source:  Advanced Television, 3rd August 2018

in 2016 Google took down 1.7 billion ads that violated its advertising policies

"We have a strict set of policies that govern the types of ads we do and don’t allow on Google in order to protect people from misleading, inappropriate, or harmful ads. And we have a team of engineers, policy experts, product managers and others who are waging a daily fight against bad actors. Over the years, this commitment has made the web a better place for you—and a worse place for those who seek to abuse advertising systems for their own gain.
In 2016, we took down 1.7 billion ads that violated our advertising policies, more than double the amount of bad ads we took down in 2015. If you spent one second taking down each of those bad ads, it’d take you more than 50 years to finish. But our technology is built to work much faster."

Source:  Blog post from Google, 25th January 2017

Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV show in 2016

Source:  Data from Torrentfreak, reported by Advanced Television, 3rd January 2017
Note - It's interesting that there are no Netflix shows on the list, possibly because Netflix releases shows simultaneously around the world

Kanye West's album The Life of Pablo was illegally downloaded 500,000 times on the first day of release

"Soon after the album was released pirated copies started to populate many torrent and direct download sites, something many people on social media were quick to point out.
TorrentFreak has been keeping a close eye on the popularity of the album on BitTorrent and after the first day an estimated 500,000 people have already grabbed a copy.
The album is currently leading The Pirate Bay’s list of most shared music torrents by a landslide. At the time of writing close to 10,000 people were sharing a copy of the most popular torrent simultaneously, something we haven’t seen with a music release before.
Aside from torrent sites, the album is also being widely distributed on various direct download services and hosting sites, increasing the overall piracy numbers even further."

Source - TorrentFreak, 16th February 2016

Netflix accounts for 37% of US peak download internet traffic

Source:  Netflix Q4 2015 resutls, 19th January 2016

Nearly 65m people watch the BBC iPlayer abroad via proxy servers of VPNs

"Over 60 million people around the world are bypassing online restrictions to use the BBC’s iPlayer service, according to figures from research company GlobalWebIndex. It claims nearly 65 million people from abroad watch the UK licence-fee funded iPlayer service using proxy servers or virtual private networks (VPNs). In China alone it estimates that there are 38.5 million people using it.
Based on what the corporation previously charged for  global iPlayer, which closed last month,  the BBC could be missing out on many millions in potential income if it were collectable.
GlobalWebIndex carried out research interviews with more than 47,000 people from around the globe. This included people in countries such as China, India, Japan, the US, Brazil, Germany and France. Its report about the BBC iPlayer said: “Although the iPlayer is funded by the UK license fee and is therefore geo-restricted to be viewable only by people resident in the country, GWI’s data shows that the service has a huge global audience – with many turning to VPNs or proxy servers in order to access the service from abroad.”"
Source:  Advanced Television, 22nd July 2015

Password sharing 'will cost the video content industry $500m in 2015'

"OTT video service credential sharing will cost the industry $500 million in direct revenues worldwide in 2015, according to research from market research and consulting company Parks Associates examining video piracy, credential sharing, and its impact on OTT revenue.
The report – The Cost of Piracy – shows 6 per cent of US broadband households use an OTT video service that is paid by a person living outside of the household. It also analyses usage and impact of live-streaming applications such as Meerkat and Periscope, which are used to ‘share’ broadcast events such as Game of Thrones episodes and the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight."

Source:  Advanced Television, 10th July 2015

10 million torrents have been uploaded to The Pirate Bay

"Last summer The Pirate Bay celebrated its tenth anniversary, and today the site reached another noteworthy milestone.
Just a few hours ago the 10 millionth torrent was uploaded to the notorious torrent site. Considering all the legal trouble and outside pressure the site has been subjected to, this is quite an achievement.
The torrent in question is a pirated copy of a video from the “IntimateLesbians” series, and was uploaded to the site by VIP uploader “Drarbg.” "

Source:  TorrentFreak, 21st April 2014

An estimated 200,000 homes in Australia subscribe to Netflix illegally

"TV networks in Australia are expressing fresh concern that local viewers are 'pirating' Netflix with help from VPN services. Officially unavailable Down Under, Netflix reportedly has up to 200,000 Aussie subscribers who evade geo-blocking mechanisms to happily pay for the service.
While Netflix is without doubt a hit service credited for doing something positive in the battle against piracy, it needs to spread its wings even more widely. There is one region in particular that would love to see it arrive on its shores, but probably won’t for some time."

Source:  TorrentFreak, 3rd March h2014

The final episode of Breaking Bad was illegally downloaded >500,000 times in 12 hours

"The season finale of Breaking Bad has resulted in a record number of pirated downloads for the popular TV-series. Just 12 hours after the first copy appeared online more than 500,000 people had already downloaded the show via various torrent sites. Most downloaders come from Australia, followed by the United States and the UK, where thousands of file-sharers prefer unauthorized copies over legal alternatives.
bbOne of the main motivations for people to download and stream TV-shows from unauthorized sources is availability.
If fans can’t get a show through legal channels they often turn to pirated alternatives.
However, the series finale of Breaking Bad shows that there are more factors at play. Despite the availability of legal options, in many countries there are those who still prefer to download a copy from unauthorized sources.
Data gathered by TorrentFreak shows that 12 hours after the first copy of the episode appeared online, more than half a million people has grabbed a copy through one of many torrent sites. Never before have so many people downloaded a Breaking Bad episode, making it a strong contender for a top spot in our most-pirated TV-shows of the year chart."

Source:  TorrentFreak, 30th September 2013

Netflix uses pirate sites to determine what TV shows to buy and offer

"This week Netflix rolled out its service in the Netherlands and the company’s Vice President of Content Acquisition, Kelly Merryman, says that their offering is partly based on what shows do well on BitTorrent networks and other pirate sites.
“With the purchase of series, we look at what does well on piracy sites,” Merryman told Tweakers.
One of the shows that Netflix acquired the rights to in the Netherlands is Prison Break, since it is heavily pirated locally. “Prison Break is exceptionally popular on piracy sites,” Merryman says."

Source:  TorrentFreak, 14th September 2013

Charles Dickens made no money from the sale of his books in America

"Now suppose that someone sees there’s money to be made from books, and decides to print and distribute my book themselves, without any agreement with me, and keep all the money they get from it. They’d be fairly stupid to do that, because this is where the law of copyright comes in. They’re not allowed to do it. It’s against the law. That’s why it very rarely happens now, although it used to happen a great deal before international copyright agreements came into existence. Charles Dickens, for example, made no money at all from the vast sale of his books in the United States, and he was justly angered about it."
Source:  Philip Pullman writing in Index on Censorship, September 2013
Also - The Story of Dr Jekyll & Mt Hyde was an early victim of piracy

When Netflix enters a territory Bittorrent traffic falls as the Netflix traffic grows

"What are you doing to combat piracy?
One of the things is we get ISPs to publicise their connection speeds – and when we launch in a territory the Bittorrent traffic drops as the Netflix traffic grows. So I think people do want a great experience and they want access – people are mostly honest. The best way to combat piracy isn’t legislatively or criminally but by giving good options. One of the side effects of growth of content is an expectation to have access to it. You can’t use the internet as a marketing vehicle and then not as a delivery vehicle."

Source:  Interview with Ted Sarandos of Netflix in Stuff magazine, 1st May 2013

Botnet fraud costs advertisers $6 million a month in false clicks

"Security researchers have discovered a botnet they have dubbed "Chameleon" which they calculate is costing display advertisers around $6m (£3.9m) per month by falsely viewing billions of pages and adverts on about 200 sites owned by a small group of publishers.
The discovery points to widespread fraud in which adverts are clicked among networks of sites to generate money for sites and ad networks – though it is still unclear whether it is one or more publishers, or one or more ad networks which supply ads to the sites, which are to blame for the fraud.
Spider.io, a security group which previously pointed out that a flaw in internet Explorer was being exploited by advertising companies to track users, says that the botnet consists of at least 120,000 subverted Windows machines, 95% of them located inside the US."

Source:  The Guardian, 19th March 2013

The shutdown of Megaupload caused an increase in digital movie sales and rentals

"This week researchers from Wellesley College and Carnegie Mellon University released a comprehensive study that evaluates the impact of Megaupload’s shutdown on digital movie revenues.
Titled “Gone in 60 Seconds: The Impact of the Megaupload Shutdown on Movie Sales,” the paper compared digital movie revenues across 12 countries. These countries vary in the relative number of Megaupload users, allowing the researchers to estimate the effect of the cyberlocker’s demise on movie sales.
“We were interested in studying the effect of a major piracy site shutdown on demand for digital movie sales since we’ve seen the argument that such efforts could be like a game of whack-a-mole, with a new file-sharing site springing up as soon as one is closed,” assistant professor of Economics Brett Danaher tells TorrentFreak.
“We saw the logic of this argument, but could also imagine a world where shutting down such a large site could change the behavior of some types of consumers,” he adds.
After controlling for a wide range of country-specific trends and other variables the researchers conclude that the latter is the case, Megaupload’s shutdown had a significant effect on digital revenues. The data suggest that the income of two major Hollywood studios was boosted by up to 10 percent.
“Our analysis across 12 countries suggests that, in the 18 weeks following the shutdown, digital revenues for these two studio’s movies were 6-10% higher than they would have been if not for the shutdown,” the researchers write in their paper.
The table [click here to see the table] shows that Megaupload “penetration” was relatively high in Spain and France, where 17% and 11% of Internet subscribers used the site. With less than 2% it was least popular in the United States.
The researchers used these differences for their statistical model and found that movie revenues were affected positively in countries with a high Megaupload penetration.
“For each additional 1% pre-shutdown Megaupload penetration, the post-shutdown sales unit change was 2.5% to 3.8% higher, suggesting that these increases are a causal effect of the shutdown,” they write.
The shutdown of Megaupload caused a 7-10% increase in the number of digital sales and a 4-7% increase in digital rentals.
The results are based on sales numbers reported by two major Hollywood studios, and the researchers suggest that the effect will be similar for other film companies. Whether the effect will remain over time has yet to be seen though."

Source:  TorrentFreak, 7th March 2013

Google receives 2.5 million copyright removal requests per week

"As policymakers evaluate how effective copyright laws are, they need to consider the collateral impact copyright regulation has on the flow of information online. When we launched the copyright removals feature, we received more than 250,000 requests per week. That number has increased tenfold in just six months to more than 2.5 million requests per week today. While we’re now receiving and processing more requests more quickly than ever (on average, within approximately six hours), we still do our best to catch errors or abuse so we don’t mistakenly disable access to non-infringing material."

Source:  Google Policy Blog, 11th December 2012

See the regularly updated chart here

People who download music from Peer-to-Peer sites buy 30% more music than people who do not

"US P2P users have larger collections than non-P2P users (roughly 37% more).  And predictably, most of the difference comes from higher levels of ‘downloading for free’ and ‘copying from friends/family.’
But some of it also comes from significantly higher legal purchases of digital music than  their non-P2P using peers–around 30% higher among US P2P users.  Our data is quite clear on this point and lines up with numerous other studies:  The biggest music pirates are also the biggest spenders on recorded music.
Our German results appear to confirm this finding–in fact, extravagantly so.  German P2P users buy nearly 3 times as much digital music as their non-P2P using peers.  We qualify this because the German results are based on too small a sample to be statistically reliable: only 4% of respondents (39 people) reported using P2P networks.  Yet the results are consistent with our wider findings.  German P2P use is mostly the province of digital music aficionados who download in large quantities and who also buy in much larger quantities than their non-P2P peers."

Source:  American Assembly, 15th October 2012

Note - lots of other interesting stats in the report, inc the fact that the median person aged 30-49 has only 30 albums worth of digital music 

Ed Sheeran's album + was illegally shared more than 300,000 in 6 months in the UK

"The data, collected independently by Musicmetric and seen exclusively by the BBC, is believed to be the biggest analysis of its kind to be conducted.
It monitored the global activity of BitTorrent files - a method of obtaining files by downloading from many users at the same time.
The data's release came as measures to attempt to curb illegal downloading began to take hold, such as the blocking of popular piracy websites and the relegation and removal of search results from Google.
Musicmetric's findings said that singer Ed Sheeran was the most pirated act in the UK for the first half of 2012, followed by hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks and Barbadian megastar Rihanna.
The data suggested that Ed Sheeran's 2011 album + (Plus) was illegally downloaded an average of 55,512 times every month, and was the most popular download in over 460 towns and cities in the UK.
Legal UK sales of his album in the first half of 2012 hit the 448,000 mark - making it the fourth most popular album behind releases from Adele, Emeli Sande and Lana Del Rey."
Source:  BBC News, 17th September 2012
Note - more data, including country comparisons in the full article

The number of URLs requested for removal from Google's search results per week

Click to enlarge

Source:  Blog post by Google, 28th August 2012

83m Facebook profiles are not 'real'

"Facebook has more than 83m fake profiles, including millions created for users' pets and a large number of accounts the company deems "undesirable", it has admitted.
The figure emerged in Facebook's first quarterly report to US financial regulators since the world's biggest social network made its much-criticised stock market debut in May.
The company said 8.7% of its 955m global users were not real.
There were 83.09m fake users in total, which Facebook classifies into three groups. The largest is made up of almost 46m duplicate profiles, accounting for 4.8% of all accounts. The company defined that category as "an account that a user maintains in addition to his or her principal account".
What were deemed "user-misclassified" profiles amounted to 2.4%, almost 23m, where Facebook says "users have created personal profiles for a business, organisation or non-human entity such as a pet".
Finally, "undesirable" profiles accounted for the remainder, about 14m, which are deemed to be in breach of Facebook's terms and conditions. The company said this typically means accounts that have been set up to send spam messages or content to other Facebook users.
In March, when Facebook last gave an estimate of the number of fake or duplicate accounts, it said the proportion was in the region of 5% or 6%, which at the time meant between 42m and 50m."

Source: The Guardian, 2nd August 2012