Piracy and counterfeit sales down: EUIPO youth report
Half of all citizens in the EU didn’t access any illegal digital content during the last year, while only a small minority intentionally purchased counterfeit goods online.
The findings came as part of the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s (EUIPO) 2019 IP and Youth Scoreboard report, which was published last week.
According to the report, 51% of 15 to 24-year-olds have not accessed content from illegal sources in the last 12 months.
This was compared to 21% of the same demographic who said they intentionally used illegal sources to access digital content.
Executive director of the EUIPO, Christian Archambeau, said the purpose of the report was “to understand what drives young people today when devising policies and programmes to protect IP in the future”.
Eastern and southern European countries remain the hotspots for accessing infringing content and products online.
In stark contrast to the EU trend, 45% of Lithuanian young people intentionally downloaded, streamed, or accessed infringing digital content online during the past year, an increase of 5% from 2016.
Estonia, Greece, Portugal, and Cyprus rounded off the top five, with each experiencing an increase in the amount of young people intentionally accessing pirate content, except Estonia (-11%).
Many of the same countries featured as blackspots for the intentional purchase of counterfeit products online.
The countries with the highest rates of young people intentionally buying counterfeit products during 2018 were Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, and Latvia.
Cyprus has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of young people accessing infringing content and goods online.
Just less than a third (31%) of young Cypriots intentionally purchased counterfeit goods online, an increase of 11% from 2016.
Similarly, 32% have intentionally accessed pirate content online, compared to 22% in 2016.
This story was first published on TBO.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
