CroatiaAccording to the latest reports, by the end of 2022, revenue lost for online piracy would amount to $ 51.6 billion. Some are firmly convinced that piracy will never be eradicated. What key players in the region can do to change that negative trend, especially since this region is well-known for piracy? Can the legislation help with intellectual property protection? What sanctions are necessary to take place when we talk about market regulations and what can we learn from other countries?
It is estimated that pirates cost businesses around 2 billion euros annually. The panelists tried to answer on how to protect jobs and investments – Chris Anderson, Head of Film and Television, MUSO; Mark Mulready, Vice President – Cybersecurity Services, Irdeto; Damir Hajduk, Director of the Agency for Electronic Media; Irena Battelino, Director of Content Procurement and Marketing Service, Telekom Slovenije; and Damir Novinić, Assistant Director, HRT.
A dead battle
“Why content is being stolen? Because it can be and because we’ve failed to fight it in the beginning”, said Damir Novinić, who explained that because of the theft of the HRT content, he began to initiate court disputes.
“We cannot go to the court for theft because we have no grounds for lawsuits since we are not creators of content. It’s a growing problem. Much of the consumption of our content takes place via YouTube, so you can assume that piracy affects it “, said Irena Battelino, warning that legislation in Slovenia does not allow teleoperators to pursue pirates in courts.
“We interviewed about 1,000 people who admitted to dealing with piracy, stealing content. Let’s find out about the layout of the pages where the stolen content is being broadcasted and some look better than Netflix. It should not be easy to find that content in order to limit it”, said Chris Anderson, a researcher of the motives, technology and reach of piracy around the world.
Three levels of anti-piracy
“There are so many things that can be done to limit piracy – from a legal, a technological point of view, and not to forget education”, said Mark Mulready.
“For example, there is an electronic print that helps to protect the content. Civil and criminal lawsuits are there as far as the legal aspect is concerned – the blocking of sites where stolen content is published. There was organized piracy that was scattered across countries so Interpol’s coordination was needed. Raids and confiscations are taking place and all means should be used to stop the trend of piracy. Education should begin already in elementary schools, in order to achieve awareness of the consequences of content theft”, Mulready explained.
“Education is really needed at all levels. We are currently trying to educate more about the web-portals in the context of transferring the World Championship games to which we have rights to broadcast. We warn them that we have a contract with FIFA and that we can withdraw their accreditation if we are in violation of the rules of the content we are entitled to when tracking the championship”, Novinić added, clarifying the current situation in which HRT is a public media.
For our region the problem of piracy is still at a low level, compared to the world
“Piracy in Croatia is low because regulators monitor the situation, so it is not organized at a high level. We expect further work on joint regulation of this problem in the European Union. We should hurry if we want to stop the piracy. Legislative sanctions, police and other organs need to play a role. There is also a need to raise awareness of the harmfulness of piracy because there is a culture of piracy in the region”, said Damir Hajduk.
“I agree that this is not a local problem – it’s a global problem. And you need to raise awareness and work at all levels of disabling the theft of content. I hope that in November this year the legislation that will enable better protection and punishment of pirates will be adopted. For now, as a telecom operator, we do not have the possibility of prosecuting in Slovenia”, emphasized Irena Battelino.
“Frustration is great because stolen content can quickly be distributed to existing platforms, and finding and removing is not so easy or fast. Sometimes it takes half a year to a year to only exchange information between the legislative bodies. That’s why we as an Anti-Piracy Association have started to swiftly share information with companies from around the world, as we share the same interests in stopping the theft of content”, said Mark Mulready.
We note 3 billion visits to pirate sites in the world. With over 90 million, Croatia is 65th in the world. Piracy is predominant in countries such as Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova. The numbers are scary. It’s hard to estimate how much piracy industry is worth”, said Chris Anderson, adding that it is important to have a state anti-piracy agency to restrict theft of content as much as possible.
The need for legal regulation, but also the greater availability of legitimate content
“Piracy technology has peaked and can download any content in good resolution to your phone. My father never stolen anything, as far as content is concerned, but my brother did. So the new generation’s habits are not encouraging. But the fight against piracy is growing even stronger and that is encouraging, “Anderson on what he predicts how the situation will develop.
“Currently, the industry is cooperating, seeking more protection from legitimate and repressive bodies, and there is progress,” Mulready concluded.
Hajduk reminded that the technology that finds pirate content is evolving, as well as tools that help to protect the content. The introduction of 5G networks in the EU should be further enhanced.
“There is a need to make and provide the widest possible access to legal content, which is currently quite expensive, and there are also restrictions on setting up satellites (for example, in London on houses)”, Anderson concluded, giving his example of paying thousands of pounds for the legal content in which he could not, until recently, watch the popular series Game of Thrones.
This was also agreed by a part of the audience – to provide better access to legal content to reduce the need for piracy.
The panel was moderated by Marijana Vukašinović, Content Manager at Telekom Srbija.
