P2P piracy still going strong, says report

A new report from digital security company Irdeto has claimed that peer-to-peer (P2P) piracy is still a force to be reckoned with.

The report, called “The piracy landscape: has web video replaced peer-to-peer?”, was published yesterday, August 7.

According to the research, consumers that favour pirated content over legal sites are helping P2P piracy cement its place as a major method of accessing illegal copies of film and TV shows.

P2P file-sharing allows users to distribute and share digital media from one computer to another.

The report identified ‘casual pirates’—people who visit both legitimate and illegal sites—as driving the growth of pirate web video sites and P2P piracy.

According to the research, five out of ten monthly visits to pirate sites by ‘casual pirates’ in 2017 were to web video sites. However, eight out of ten of monthly visits to illegal sites by ‘committed pirates’ (those that don’t visit legitimate streaming sites) were to P2P sites.

In addition, last year experienced an average of 800 million global monthly downloads from P2P sites. The report said that P2P activity in high-piracy countries is either rising or has remained constant. These high-piracy countries include Russia, India, Brazil, the Netherlands and the US.

During 2017, the US accounted for 11% of global P2P downloads, with Russia contributing 12%.

“While many expect P2P piracy to be taken over by streaming and direct downloads, it’s clear that this has not happened yet,” said Peter Cossack, vice president of cybersecurity services at Irdeto.

The report explained that growth in piracy can be traced to technological developments, such as broadband services becoming more widely available. These allow users to choose from a wide range of devices to stream content, including desktops, smartphones, and tablets. 

“While the increase in bandwidth and social media has facilitated growth in content redistribution piracy, particularly around live sporting events, it is clear that other forms of piracy are not going away any time soon,” added Cossack.

“This must be considered by content owners and rights holders in their security strategies.”