Research carried out by NetNames has claimed that the piracy of digital content including music, films and software costs about $80bn a year, although it is not clear whether that figure indicated lost sales, some legal fees, or even unemployment through piracy.
The research said that 432 million internet users frequently copy content illegally, with 327 million unique Internet users across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific openly sought infringing digital content.
About 23.8% of the overall bandwidth across the three regions was used for infringing digital content.
The report also added that 98% of data transferred by means of peer-to-peer networks is copyrighted, while 42% of software being used globally has been downloaded illegally.
According to report, online digital piracy directly has an effect on the software, gaming, film, TV, music and eBooks industries in addition to other types of online media services that depend on paid subscriptions or download fees.
