While services such as Netflix are proof that people are willing to pay for online content, they don’t seem to have curbed the growth of online piracy.
In fact, the rapid growth and adoption of technologies mean that piracy is growing across a variety of media, including video, music, adult content, and books and magazine.
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In 2014 alone, says app protection company Arxan, it’s estimated that the unmonetized value of pirated digital media assets reached US$109 000 000 000. If you’re a little blinded by all those zeroes, that’s US$109-billion.
And in 2015, the total number of pirated assets is reportedly set to hit 1.96-million, up from an average of 1.6-million a year between 2012 and 2014.
Read more: Is the war against piracy in Africa impossible to win?
According to an infographic produced by the company, the film industry is far and away the most affected by digital piracy, accounting for US$73-billion of the US$109-billion mentioned above.
If the infographic is to be believed, content that infringes on copyright also accounts for nearly a quarter of global internet bandwidth.
