New European Study highlights dramatic digital piracy trends
A new European Study on Piracy and its impact on the Creative Industries was released last week on the 17th of March. It was carried out by TERA consultants and was commissioned by the International Chamber of Commerce action group “BASCAP” (Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy).
The study focuses on three questions: 1) What is the contribution of the creative industries to the European economy in terms of GDP and jobs? 2) What are the consequences of piracy on retail revenue and jobs? 3) If current policies do not change in the EU, what will these losses be by 2015?
The analysis determined the following:
· In 2008 the European Union’s creative industries, based on the more accurate and comprehensive definition, contributed 6.9%, or approximately €860 billion, to total European GDP, and represented 6.5% of the total workforce, or approximately 14 million workers.
· In 2008 the European Union’s creative industries most impacted by piracy (film, TV series, recorded music and software) experienced retail revenue losses of €10 billion and losses of more than 185,000 jobs due to piracy, largely digital piracy.
· Based on current projections and assuming no significant policy changes, the European Union’s creative industries could expect to see cumulative retail revenue losses of as much as €240 billion by 2015, resulting in 1.2 million jobs lost by 2015.
FIA decided to lend its support to this study in line with the concerns of its membership regarding the impact of piracy on the industry and therefore on employment opportunities for performers. FIA welcomed the conservative nature of the study and the methodology adopted. FIA’s president Agnete Haaland spoke at the study launch of the pressing need to find effective ways to tackle this problem, as well as the need for performers to be able to derive tangible benefit from the exploitation of their work. She also emphasized the pressing need for an Audiovisual Treaty to be concluded at WIPO.
FIA issued an official statement in relation to the study which is included below, together with the official press release, full text of the study in English and the executive summary in French and Spanish. Uni-Europa also lent its support to the study and released an official statement, available on their website.
FIA Statement on the Piracy Study Official Press release Full TERA Study Executive Summary - French Executive Summary - Spanish
FIA’s response to DG INFSO and DG MARKT Reflection Document
DG Information Society and Media and DG Internal Market and Services have recently issued a reflection paper on Creative Content in a European Digital Single Market, calling various stakeholders for a consultation process.
FIA welcomes this EU Commission consultation, especially since performers’ unions have been excluded from past and ongoing groupings such as the Content Online Platform and the Commission working group on illegal up and downloading. FIA wishes to strongly stress the importance of a transparent, participatory and open dialogue for the follow-up to this consultation, gathering all stakeholders in the industry and including performers, equally represented by trade unions and collecting societies. The Paper has several interesting and promising points but we still need to be as vigilant as possible in order te defend performers’ rights.
You can download FIA’s response to the EU Reflection Paper here below, as well as, for reference, the joint response from the creators’ organisations signed by FIA together with EFJ, EVA, EWC, FERA, FSE and FIM. In addition, you can also download the Reflection Paper itself.
FIA's Response to Reflection Document Creators' Joint Response to Reflection Document EU Creative Content Reflection Document