CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Akamai
Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the world's most trusted
solution for protecting and delivering digital experiences,
released today new research detailing the persistence of online
piracy. "Pirates in the Outfield" is Akamai's latest State of the
Internet / Security report and examines the evolving piracy
landscape, which, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's
Global Innovation Policy Center, costs the U.S. economy alone
$29.2 billion in lost revenue each
year. The new report is a collaboration between Akamai
and MUSO, which provided data on streaming and download piracy
activity across several industries.
The research illustrates how online piracy continues to be
prevalent across, and financially detrimental to, a variety of
industries. Between January and September
2021, global piracy demand — measured by visits to websites
offering access to movies and television shows, either directly
through a browser or mobile application, as well as torrent
downloads — reached 3.7 billion unlicensed streams and downloads.
According to the research, 61.5% of consumers who visited piracy
sites accessed them directly, while 28.6% actively searched for
them.
"Piracy is an ongoing battle, and there's no silver bullet to
address each type of piracy online. As content developers get
better at guarding against piracy, criminals are adapting their
methods to access protected content," said Steve Ragan, security researcher at Akamai and
author of the report. "The impact of piracy goes far beyond stolen
movies and other content. The real cost is behind the scenes,
leading to the loss of livelihood for those who work to create the
movies, films, books, and software we all consume and enjoy."
The scale of online piracy outlined in the report presents one
of the most difficult and complex issues for companies to address.
At a time when media, publishing, and other digital services
companies are focusing on protecting revenue due to changing
consumer behavior, it's paramount to understand the threat
landscape to successfully mitigate risk. Piracy poses a security
issue both internally at organizations and as another potential
attack vector to protect against breaches of critical intellectual
property (IP).
"When examining piracy globally and across the film, TV,
software, publishing, and music industries, the vast scale of
piracy is clear. Perhaps more concerningly, in many areas, piracy
is still a growing problem, with an overall 16% increase on the
previous nine-month period," said James
Mason, CTO of MUSO. "As highlighted by our partnering with
Akamai on this report, working collaboratively to deeply understand
the latest trends within piracy's ever-changing ecosystem is key to
forming effective anti-piracy strategies, as opposed to combating
piracy in silos."
Breaking down piracy trends
In addition to the
unrelenting demand for pirated materials, the report revealed
several other notable takeaways, including:
- A total of 132 billion visits to piracy websites occurred
between January 2021 and September 2021
- The top pirated industries were television (67 billion total
visits), publishing (30 billion total visits), film (14.5 billion
total visits), music (10.8 billion total visits) and software,
which includes video games and modern PC software (8.9 billion
total visits)
- Globally, the United States
(13.5 billion), followed by Russia
(7.2 billion), India (6.5
billion), China (5.9 billion), and
Brazil (4.5 billion), were the top
five locations for piracy website visits last year
To access the full Akamai 2022 State of the Internet / Security
report "Pirates in the Outfield," please visit Akamai's State
of the Internet page.
For additional information, the security community can access,
engage with, and learn from Akamai's threat researchers and the
insight that the Akamai Intelligent Edge Platform affords into the
evolving threat landscape by visiting Akamai's Security Threat Hub.
Existing Akamai customers can also leverage Akamai's Managed
Content Protection offering to mitigate the effects of growing
piracy demand.
About Akamai
Akamai powers and protects life online.
The most innovative companies worldwide choose Akamai to secure and
deliver their digital experiences — helping billions of people
live, work, and play every day. With the world's largest and most
trusted edge platform, Akamai keeps apps, code, and experiences
closer to users — and threats farther away. Learn more about
Akamai's security, content delivery, and edge compute products and
services at www.akamai.com, blogs.akamai.com, or follow Akamai
Technologies on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Contacts:
Chris
Nicholson
Akamai Media Relations
+1 617-444-2987
cnichols@akamai.com
Tom Barth
Akamai Investor Relations
+1 617-274-7130
tbarth@akamai.com
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SOURCE Akamai Technologies, Inc.