Tags containing: "piracy"

The impact of piracy on the media ecosystem: Address to the 2017 IP Crimes Conference

August 29, 2017 Jason Kint, CEO – DCN

The following remarks were given by DCN CEO Jason Kint on August 29 at the 2017 International Law Enforcement Intellectual Property Crime Conference in New York City – United Nations Headquarters.

Good afternoon. My name is Jason Kint. I am the CEO of Digital Content Next. DCN is the only trade group dedicated to serving high-quality digital content companies that manage trusted, direct relationships with consumers and advertisers. We have grown to represent more than 80 digital media companies which reach 100% of the U.S. online population and are leading much of the evolution in news and entertainment.

Despite the incredible advances of the last 20 years, the internet still holds vast, untapped potential for consumers. Devices are getting smarter. More immersive experiences roll out every day. At the same time, premium content companies face challenges in the transition to a digital world. What business model works best for each brand? How much should they partner with the big platforms? Is their content being used fairly? Are they being credited and compensated appropriately? Our members are at the forefront of these challenges – investing in engaging experiences and experimenting with new ways to distribute and monetize their content.

Copyright piracy is a serious crime that undermines the progress to a healthy digital ecosystem. Ultimately, it costs consumers in the form of higher prices. But, copyright piracy also hurts the ability for media companies, our members, to monetize their content.

Newspapers are constantly fighting online scams that offer discounted or free subscriptions to their premium content. In a case this spring, one website was found to be offering discounted subscriptions to 20 or so premium news sites including our member, The New York Times, Financial Times and Wall Street Journal. The site’s owner would sign up for free trial or short-term subscriptions and then re-sell the subscription as a full-year subscription. Of course, he collected full payment up front. The newspapers were tipped off when consumers called to complain that their subscription had been cut off after a few months. These efforts to combat piracy cost resources and money, but they also have real damages for consumers.

Live sports broadcasts are another category that is particularly vulnerable during the transition to digital.Companies are experimenting with new ways for consumers to view this highly compelling content. But, these efforts are undercut by thieves who blatantly post full live streams of entire games on social media or other platforms. According to one study, 54% of millennials have watched illegal streams of live sports and a third admit to regularly watching them.

This impact is felt disproportionately by smaller media companies with fewer resources to monitor and stop these crimes. Ellen Seidler, an independent filmmaker took out a second mortgage and racked up credit card debt just to make “Then Came Lola.” In 2006, it debuted at film festivals and then was released via DVD and via streaming sites. But the movie only grossed a quarter of what was expected because Ellen found that the movie was available for “free” on thousands of pirate sites. Similarly, Maria Schneider, an independent musician, testified before the US Congress that she has no time for making music anymore as she focuses entirely on protecting her copyrighted works. She is an artist who hast lost the time to create her art. In a game of whack-a-mole, independent creators like Ellen and Maria don’t stand a chance. And, left unchecked, consumers will be left fewer options for high quality news and entertainment.

Another harm, unknown to many consumers, is that many of the pirate sites also traffic in malware. According to a 2015 study by the Digital Citizens Alliance, one out of every three pirate sites contained malware. As organized crime syndicates moved into the content theft business, they saw the opportunity to make more money by distributing malware.

To really combat content theft, we need more resources/focus/coordination from law enforcement. Piracy actors react differently to law enforcement than they do to lawsuits. For instance, when Megaupload was taken down, a number of cyber lockers got out of the business. That wouldn’t have happened without the attention of law enforcement.

We also need more attention from Google, which holds a monopoly on the internet search market. Currently, Google will flag pirate sites after thousands of downloads or complaints. But, they make no effort to favor authorized copyright holders or trusted sources in their algorithm. Instead, Google crawls the Pirate Bay and other known copyright thieves every day to ensure that content can be found. Google enables this game of whack-a-mole that places a huge, unreasonable burden on the copyright holder. Google works with many of our members to take down pirated content, but they can and should do more.

The same holds true for Facebook. Content creators don’t have visibility into these platforms to see where their content is being shared illegally. Google and Facebook collectively act as a duopoly, sharing as much as 99% of the growth in advertising last quarter. At the same time, the platforms are slow to adopt measures to combat fraud or even provide more transparency to protect the content ecosystem. More can be done to ensure that valuable content isn’t illegally streamed.

We’re living in a new, unprecedented digital era. Consumers have the ability to discover premium content and experiences like never before. Facebook and Google engineers have created social and search discovery engines which are quite literally changing global society. But, without greater protections for content, consumers might be left with all the tools of discovery but with a bad malware hangover and no good content. Thank you for having me.

Industry-Research

Most young adults pirate content and many don’t even know it’s wrong

September 21, 2016 Research Team

Sixty-nine percent of young millennials use at least one method of piracy (download, stream or mobile). Even more alarming, however, is the finding that 24% of those surveyed believe that both downloading and streaming piracy are legal, according to the report Millennials at the Gate from creative advertising agency Anatomy Media, which looks at the streaming, piracy and ad blocking behaviors of young (18-24) adults.

Other key findings include:

2 out of 3 young adults use an ad blocker
3 out of 5 young adults who stream content use a shared password or cable log-in
60% stream content without paying for it
While more than half say they share their parents’ log-in (58%), only 13% of those actually live with their family

According to the report, millennials use ad blockers “to assert control over their user experience, reduce their data usage and get access to their desired content faster.” However, they believe that millennials will accept advertising as long as it is “restrained, targeted and relevant.” Thus, Anatomy urges a focus on user experience overall.

Industry-Research | Video

Streaming dominates video content piracy

August 3, 2016 DCN

At least since the Sony Betamax case, content creators and the law have struggled to keep up with the technological advances in piracy. Just this year, HBO hired anti-piracy partner, IP-Echelon, which sent out thousands of copyright warnings for alleged piracy of its popular series “Game of Thrones” to internet service providers. The warnings contained the IP addresses of users suspected of sharing “Thrones” episodes. HBO’s and IP Echelon are still monitoring this situation and consider it critical to their business.

It turns out that online video streaming is now the primary means of pirating video content. In contrast, a decade ago peer-to-peer file sharing via torrent websites was the top method to download pirated video files. New data from the MUSO’s Global Film & TV Piracy Market Insight Report 2016 provides data showing pirate streaming sites had more than 57 billion visits last year. Out of the total 78 billion film and television piracy site visits, 74% of all visits to piracy sites were to those that stream content illegally.

MUSO’s analysis reports on over 14,000 visits to the main global piracy websites from 226 countries. Overall, MUSO tracked 141 billion visits to pirate sites last year. The U.S. tops the list of video pirate visits, representing 12% of total traffic, almost 10 billion visits. France, Germany and the UK are all included in the top 10 countries globally based on total piracy visits.

Torrent site traffic has shown gradual decline for illegal video content consumption. Approximately 17% of the piracy traffic went to torrent sites and direct download sites accounted for 8% of video piracy visits. Users predominately use desktops on both streaming pirate sites and torrent sites, 72% and 77%, respectively. Therefore, mobile piracy remains comparatively small. Interestingly, mobile download registered a slight increase (5%) in visits from the first 6 months to the visits from the last 6 months in 2015. However, the usage of downloads was still relatively low, compared to torrents and streaming traffic. Overall, the piracy environment is engaging in streaming consumption versus content downloading or sharing. However, piracy tactics have not transitioned to mobile at the same pace as other content consumption habits.

Industry-Research

Content Pirates and Ad Hijackers Earn $200 million a Year

May 22, 2015 Research Team—DCN

Digital Citizens Alliance and MediaLink have released a new edition of their “Good Money Gone Bad” report, which examines the impact of content piracy on the digital advertising ecosystem. While many of the players have changed since the first edition, the revenue numbers have remained stable: The 589 sites analyzed in 2014 generated an estimated $209 million in aggregate annual revenue from advertising alone, as compared with $227 million in 2013.

Even worse: The advertising profits garnered by content thieves do not equate with the losses incurred by the owners of the content. As the report points out “these losses are unquestionably greater by many orders of magnitude.”

And brands whose ads appear on content theft sites “take a double hit” according to the report: Their reputations suffer by association with content theft itself and with the illicit services whose ads also appear on the sites. In addition, they are being defrauded. The money they spent to advertise on legitimate sites is instead fueling content theft, and the impression counts are being boosted by bots and other fraudulent means.

MediaLink’s analysis of these ad-supported pirate sites provides additional insights into other aspects of the content theft ecosystem, including the continuing presence of premium brand ads, the danger to users who are exposed to malware, and the prevalence of ad fraud.

Here are a few other highlights from the report:

Premium Brand Advertisers Still at Risk:
Despite increased industry awareness of the problem, the reputation and value of legitimate brands continues to be threatened as their ads show up in increasing numbers on offending sites, often alongside offensive ads. There were 132 premium brands observed by MediaLink researchers on the sites, up from 89 the previous year.

Malware Threatens Consumers
One-third of the sites included links with the potential to infect users’ computers with viruses and other malware. In most cases the links are hidden behind Download or Play buttons, but in many cases, it is not even necessary to click on a link to spawn the unwanted download. These downloads earn site owners millions in annual revenue.

Fraud
Ad fraud has been in the spotlight over the past year as the advertising industry has tried to come to terms with the problem. This is a significant challenge for the industry as a whole, but is particularly virulent in the content theft business—not surprising for an industry that at its core is based on theft and fraud.

Video Streaming a Growing Model
As consumer appetites have shifted from downloading to streaming, content theft sites have followed suit. The number of video streaming sites in 2014 was up 40% from the original report, and revenue grew significantly due to video CPMs that are far higher than those for display ads. The profitability and ease of execution are the primary drivers of ad-supported content theft. The best chance to deter or degrade these activities is through legal, technical, or industry initiatives, which have made headway.