Mar 28, 2025 06:00:00

Europol predicts that 'piracy damage will decrease'

In March 2025,

Europol released its Serious and Organized Crime Threat Assessment 2025. The report also includes a section on digital content piracy, which predicts that 'online pirated content will gradually decline.'

The changing DNA of serious and organized crime | Europol
https://www.europol.europa.eu/publication-events/main-reports/changing-dna-of-serious-and-organised-crime

Europol Predicts Drop in Online Piracy (Updated) * TorrentFreak
https://torrentfreak.com/europol-predicts-drop-in-online-piracy-contrary-to-new-data-250319/

Europol's 100-page report, 'The changing DNA of serious and organised crime,' has one section on page 1 of the report dedicated to piracy of digital content.

The section on piracy is titled 'Shift to the online sphere and potential decline in demand,' and the report noted that the rise in online streaming and OTT services means pirated content is consumed via web-based applications. Online piracy also increasingly overlaps with other types of cybercrime, with 'cybercriminals stealing or purchasing login credentials from subscribers to legitimate services through phishing scams and data leaks, and then creating pirate sites by repackaging multiple OTT libraries into a single unauthorized service,' Europol wrote.

On the other hand, the report stresses that 'criminal networks offering digital piracy services will face a decline in demand.' According to Europol, the growing cost of living crisis and the hassle of fragmenting different content across multiple legal distribution platforms are driving consumers to seek more cost-effective, unified packages, regardless of whether they are legal or illegal.

In the past, people often chose to pirate due to rising poverty and the inability to use legal streaming services, but in recent years, access to legal platforms has improved, and some EU member states have become increasingly strict in their crackdown on piracy, so Europol predicts that the number of people using illegal platforms will decrease.

TorrentFreak, a media outlet that covers news about copyright infringement, pointed out that 'Europol's report cites data from about five years ago, so its analysis of the decline in demand for pirated content may not be up-to-date.' In response to a request for comment from TorrentFreak, Claire Georges, head of media relations at Europol, said, 'The report is based on Europol's analysis of the current situation and expected future situation, which is that 'access to legal platforms, improved safety, and crackdown on piracy are expected to reduce demand for pirated content.' Projections and conclusions are based on current data and future outlook, not on old data.'