Piracy in Italy is not as bad as some countries in the world, but it is a growing concern. The Association of Italian Publishers recently conducted a study and they found that pirated ebooks account for €528 million in loses, which is around 23% of all digital sales.
The report stated that “This data reveals the need for the imposition of strong law enforcement and the education of users who are not always fully aware of the effects of their behavior.”
Some 36% of users—more than one in three Italians older than 15, the researchers found—carried out at least one act of piracy with a work of published content in the last year. One in four users are estimated to have downloaded an illegal ebook or audiobook free of charge at least once. 17% of those surveyed said they’ve received at least one ebook from a friend or family member
Here are some of the key findings in the report.
- €216 million is the estimated level of annual loss to Italy in taxes on pirated content
- €324 million is being lost to various elements of the publishing industry, reflective of 29 million legitimate sales being squandered
- €105 million is the estimated level of economic loss yearly to university publishing, which is thought to be losing the sales of 4 million units annually
- €99 million is the estimated level of loss to professional publishing and data banks, a sector that’s thought to be losing 2.9 million unit sales yearly
This report was commissioned from IPSOS. The project was executed in November with a sample of 4,000 respondents selected for factors including gender, age, geographical location, educational and professional status, and other elements.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
