Prevent Video Piracy in 10 Steps in 2025

If you are a business owner that deals in video content, Chances are that your videos are being pirated and you might be facing a substantial loss of revenue. The movie industry alone incurs a loss of around 40 and $97.1 billion due to digital video piracy. That’s a substantial amount, isn’t it? Video piracy remains a serious threat in 2025, siphoning off revenue and undermining the hard work of content creators. Industry reports estimate that digital video piracy drains over $50-70 billion from the global economy each year and it consumes nearly 24% of worldwide internet bandwidth. For video streaming platforms, e-learning providers, and filmmakers, these losses are impossible to ignore. The good news is that by implementing a multi-layered anti-piracy strategy, you can significantly protect your content and revenue.

Content creators spend a substantial amount of time creating their content. A lot of TV series you might see on Netflix take months to produce and a lot of money too. It is a bummer to put in all this effort and then your content gets downloaded for free. In some cases, users share their credentials with others and a single account is used for multiple access.

What is Video Piracy?

Video piracy is the unauthorized reproduction, distribution, sale, or streaming of copyrighted video content without the permission of the rights holders. This illegal activity encompasses a range of methods, including:

• Illegal Downloading: Utilizing unauthorized platforms to access video content, which deprives content creators of their rightful earnings.
• Screen Capture: Using screen grabber tools like loom, or using a camera to record the screen externally. Although this downgrades the Audio Video quality but bypasses basic download prevention techniques.
• Credential Sharing: Distributing login details of legitimate accounts amongst multiple users, exceeding permitted use.
• Content Ripping: Employing software tools to copy or record content that is streamed or played online, leading to widespread unauthorized distribution.

How Does Video Piracy Happen?

In essence, video piracy happens in two ways. That is through credential sharing and video downloading. Piracy of any kind, whether it is movie piracy or piracy of eLearning content hurts revenue. Don’t you think users would rather access the content for free if they had that option?

Here are a few ways by which you might be losing new potential customers and revenues.

Credentials Sharing

Given a choice, anyone would choose not to pay for something which they get for free. But as a content creator, it’s your bread and butter. You might as well take extra effort to curb with this.

Credential sharing happens with streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar. Users often buy a single account, share it with friends and family without paying for extra bandwidth or users.  Also, at times with strangers to swap the different subscribed services.

There are different other ways video content is pirated by getting access to the credentials.

• Password Theft – When account credentials are hacked and stolen from the users. These accounts can be further sold by Pirates.
• Endless trials – This one is quite popular among users, as they’d often create fake accounts. Even using different credit cards, to access the content for free and even resold at times
• Bypass of concurrency controls – Pirates hack in the video platform server to tinker with the restriction of the number of devices. This way a single account can be used by multiple users without any restrictions.
• Token theft – Streaming apps or web browsers use tokens to identify the user. Pirates can copy these tokens to other devices and use them again to access the content.

Piracy Method	How It Works	Countermeasure
Developer Console Ripping	Inspecting network tab to fetch video URLs or segment files	Tokenized URLs + DRM encryption
Download Tools & Plugins	Browser extensions like IDM or Video Downloader Pro	DRM + Disable right-click / developer tools
Credential Stuffing	Hackers use stolen passwords from breached databases	MFA + Session/device tracking
VPN Circumvention	Pirates use VPNs to access region-restricted content	Geo-blocking + license-based access
Screen Recording	External camera or software records what’s played on screen	DRM with screen-capture protection (apps)

Video Downloading

There are several tools available online, which makes it easy for users to download a video.  By just entering the URL in the tool, they can easily download your video. And from there on it can easily get into all the popular pirate resources.

Video streaming platforms use encryption to protect their videos, but a lot of times they don’t focus too much on key protection. Pirates take advantage of this fact, they put in efforts to find the encryption key. With the key, pirates can easily convert encrypted file back to raw file. Pirates at times also target the storage platform used by the platform to get access to the content before it is even released.

 

Video Download Tool Name	No. of downloads/Annual Unique Visits	Source
Savefrom	40,000,000	Alexa
Keepvid	25,000,000	Alexa
Video Download Helper	4,100,000	Sites
Internet Download Manager	3,500,000	Alexa
Video Downloader Professional	3,200,000	Site
Audials	800,000	Alexa
Video Downloader Pro	370,000	Site
All mytube wondershare	25,000,000	Site
ANT video downloader	2,000,000	Alexa
Clip Grab	1,500,000	Alexa
Total Users from 10 tools-	110 Million Pirates

Simulcast Of Live Streaming & TV channels

Capturing and redistribution of live streaming and tv channels has been one of the major forms of video piracy. Live sports are one of the live events which have been pirated massively. According to a study done by sportspromedia, about 51% of sports fans opt for watching pirated video streams.

Pirates use various methods to capture live streaming

• Tampering with video playback software or Android OS
• Recording screens during playback or capturing during a screen-share session
• Using credential stuffing attacks to access and use legitimate viewer details
• Tampering with video to defeat watermarking, such as re-quantization
• Using VPN to access content not available in the geographical region,

The Extent of the problem

You might find a lot of studies on the internet regarding video piracy, but the truth is it’s still difficult to predict the real extent of piracy around the globe. And the sole reason for the same is we haven’t been able to stick with a consistent method to track this problem.

There are many datasets provided by huge commercial companies but they aren’t completely useful and can often be at odds with one another based on methodology.

• A study was conducted by “The European Intellectual Property Office(EUIPO)” regarding the impact of piracy across member states. The numbers showed that approx 13.7 million users are accessing illegal pirate services around the European countries.
• The study also showed that the Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain constituted the highest percentages of offending viewers within their populations, with 8.9%, 8.5%, and 6.9% respectively(the EU average is 3.6%).
• The United Kingdom(2.4 million), France(2.3 million), and Spain(2.2 million) have the largest populations when it comes to using illegal services on a regular basis.
• The picture is yet to be clear in North America. A study by Sandvine showed that around 6.5% of households were regularly communicating with pirate sites. Meanwhile, a report by  Park Associates identified that more than 14.1 million U.S. households accessed pirated videos in 2019, which is approximately 16% of the total pay TV market.
• A study conducted by the University of Amsterdam in 2017 showed the piracy habits across Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand. Both the Indonesian and Thai populations showed a very high usage of pirated content, with the study estimating between 65% and 54% of their internet populations. Hong Kong registered 27% of their internet population while Japan registered 12% of their internet population (11% of the total population).
• The results were confirmed by the Asia Video Industry Association in 2019 based on the consumer survey report and it was identified that 24% of consumers in Hong kong use internet streaming devices for accessing pirated channels. This number increased to 28% of consumers in the Philippines, 34% in Taiwan, and 45% in Thailand.

From the above-mentioned studies and reports, it can be clearly seen and concluded that video piracy and in particular, TV or Movie piracy, still remains a serious issue globally.

What is the Impact of Piracy? 

Various studies have shown that by 2022 the estimated losses to the industry would be as high as $52 billion globally (Digital TV Research 2017) along with massive GDP losses. Talking about The United States only, the GDP losses due to piracy have been estimated between $47 billion and $115 billion (Blackburn et al, 2019).

With a lot of research and studies now available, we are getting to understand the wider impact of this video piracy problem. The American movie and TV production and distribution industry support over 2.6 million jobs, and in 2017 alone, it generated $229 billion in revenue. A report by Blackburn, Eisenach, and Harrison on the impact of movie piracy on the U.S. economy, estimated that in 2017 between 230,000 and 560,000 jobs were lost in the U.S. as a direct result of pirating activity.

Not only economy and employment, now we’re beginning to see how video piracy has started impacting licensing too, which stands as the backbone of the digital industry, and is arguably a more damaging strategic issue than any other. Say simply, why would the potential distributors invest a high amount of money for rights when content is readily available for free on pirate sites? Why would rights owners sell to a distributor who has the potential of damaging their international sales?

A recent study from the US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center identified that movie piracy costs the US TV and film industry at least an estimated $29.2 billion dollars and as much as $71 billion annually.

Pirated videos now get more than 230 billion views every year, with the majority coming outside from the US. The highest demand is for pirated TV episodes with over 12.8 billion views in the U.S. and 170.6 billion views outside. There are 26.6 billion illegal online viewings of U.S. produced movies and 126.7 billion viewings of American TV shows annually.

Torrent search engines like PirateBay have a wide portfolio of pirated content from Netflix and other streaming platforms and then serves it to approx 59 million pirates online. Similarly, there are numerous other illegal video streaming sites continuously contributing to OTT video piracy, every single day.

An “OTT streaming revenue insights”  estimated that video piracy is expected to hit $9.1 billion of revenue in 2019 with the loss set to grow by 38% to $12.5 billion by 2022.

Parks Associates estimated that revenue lost to video pirate operations could exceed $61 billion in 2020 and $67 billion worldwide by 2023. The report says that if 10% of paid TV subscribers canceled pay-TV services due to video delivered by pirates, the loss could reach up to $6 billion by 2023 for those operators. A Parks survey of U.S. broadband households also showed that 5% of people used someone else’s credentials to get access to paid TV service, and 6% did so to access an online video service.

How To Stop Video Piracy in 10 Steps?

Data has regularly shown that users who often pirate content are often the biggest buyer of legit content. There is a strong correlation between providing viewers with content that they want to watch (with a good streaming experience at a reasonable price) and a reduction in piracy.

Another way to curb video piracy is to make it much easier for users to access the content on their SVOD, TVOD, or AVOD platform.  A lot of users might opt for a better user experience even though they have to pay a premium price for it. Platforms like Netflix personalized content suggestions based on their choices and makes it simple for users to find shows they might like.

Let’s just explore a few more action you can take in order to stop video piracy on your website:

1. Using Video Encryption

Video encryption is used to secure your videos by encrypting or hiding them from anyone you haven’t given access to. Basically, it stops anyone from viewing the video without your permission(the encryption key).

At present there are two major popular and easy to use encrypted video streaming protocols:

• AES 128 Encryption (Normal or Sample AES 128 protocol)
• HLS Encryption with AES-128

The flaw in common video encryption technologies – Even though these encryption by themselves are decently strong and cannot be cracked by brute force but they have a major flaw, that is the fact that their keys are exposed and can be accessed by any hacker or a tool/extension with some effort. Hackers can use the key to easily decrypt and download the video. Basic AES encryption will stop casual download-and-run piracy. For example, if someone tries to directly download your .m3u8 playlist and .ts segment files, they’ll be scrambled. It’s a necessary baseline for any premium video. However, pirates may still find ways around it (for example, by sniffing out the keys if your player exposes them, or using developer tools). This is why many organizations take it a step further with DRM.

Since the major flaw in the encryption technology is the open key exchange, it makes sense only to use a technology that can fix this. This is where DRM comes in.

Aspect	Normal Encryption	Digital Rights Management (DRM) Encryption
Purpose	To secure data from unauthorized access.	To control the usage of digital media and prevent unauthorized distribution.
Method	Uses algorithms like AES, RSA, etc., to encrypt data.	Incorporates encryption along with licensing controls to restrict usage.
Key Management	Keys are managed by the data owner or a trusted third party.	Keys are often managed by the content provider or DRM solution provider.
Control	Primarily focused on data confidentiality and integrity.	Focuses on controlling how, when, and by whom the content is accessed and used, often using CDMs for decryption.
Compatibility	Generally compatible with standard protocols and systems.	Requires specific software or hardware, often with CDMs integrated into browsers or media players.
Flexibility	Can be applied to a wide range of data types and communication methods.	Often tailored to specific types of media (e.g., video, audio, ebooks).
Performance Overhead	Can be minimal depending on the encryption algorithm used.	Can be higher due to additional licensing checks and usage tracking.

2. Using DRM Encryption Technology

DRM(Digital Rights Management) works alongside the HLS, DASH, and RTMP encryption to make the video more secure by making it impossible to find the encryption key. DRM effectively removes any flaws in the video encryption to ensure that the video is not downloadable.

DRM involves encrypting the video and then issuing a license (containing decryption keys and rights) to authorized players. The player (e.g., a DRM-enabled video player app or browser component) enforces rules in the license, such as “do not allow screen recording” or “this license expires in 48 hours”.

A well-implemented DRM makes it extremely difficult for pirates to download or record content through official channels. For example, Widevine DRM (used by Netflix, Disney+, etc.) can thwart screen-capture on many devices and ensures decrypted data stays within a secure video pipeline. In fact, a DRM system “will make sure that content can’t be downloaded or recorded,” often by using hardware-based protections in devices. This is why top streaming services use DRM in addition to basic encryption.

Major DRM being used in the market to stop video piracy are:

1. Google’s Widevine DRM
2. Apple’s Fairplay DRM

In order to ensure video protection, DRM is often used along with Watermarking to track any pirated content.

3. Using Watermarking

Watermarking involves embedding digital information in a video signal to identify its source of origin. It aims to identify the redistribution source of illegal streaming services. All content is marked, or tattooed, with a unique identifier that can be extracted in case of piracy in order to find the original source. Dynamic Watermarking combined with advanced analytics has been found to be the best deterrent of video piracy via screen capture and recording.

Watermarking does not prevent piracy by itself, pirates can still copy the video but it significantly enhances accountability and deters insiders. Many industries (e.g., e-learning, enterprise webinars) also display visible watermarks (like the user’s email on screen) for highly sensitive content, which is an even stronger deterrent but can be intrusive for general audiences.

4. Hacker Identification & Analytics Tool 

With VdoCipher’s hacker identification tool, you can prevent video piracy by getting detailed insights into viewer engagement and detecting suspicious activities through VdoCipher’s analytics dashboard. It can identify password sharing, track device and browser usage, and monitor playback attempts on non-regular devices. Additionally, it uses domain playback logs to ensure content is accessed only on authorized domains, safeguarding against unauthorized sharing and distribution.

By closely monitoring how content is consumed on your platform, you can sometimes catch a pirate in the act or discover leaked credentials being misused. Key indicators to watch include:

Unusual Viewing Spikes – If one user account suddenly streams far more content than a typical user (e.g., 100+ videos in a day, or the same video dozens of times), it could be a sign that account’s stream is being restreamed or downloaded repeatedly by a script. Platforms like VdoCipher have real-time analytics that flag accounts with such patterns.

Multiple IP Addresses or Locations – Analytics can continuously evaluate if an account is hopping between IPs or countries in ways normal users don’t. For instance, if user John usually watches 2 hours a day from New York, but today the account is pulling 10 hours from servers in Eastern Europe, something is off. Automated rules might suspend access pending review.

Rapid Content Access – Pirates using download tools might fetch video segments much faster than real-time playback. If your logs show a single client pulling chunks at 10x the normal rate, you might throttle or cut off that connection as it’s likely an automated ripper.

5. Domain Restrictions

Domain restriction ensures that your video streams or embed players only work on approved domains or apps. If someone tries to take your video link or embed code and put it on a different site, it will simply fail to play. This prevents one common piracy tactic, embedding someone else’s paid content on a pirate site via link. As the original content host, you can configure your server or CDN to check the request’s origin. If the request doesn’t come from your website or authorized app, the server denies it.

It basically turns off the tap if the video isn’t being viewed in the proper place. Keep in mind, this doesn’t stop someone who downloads the video (that’s what encryption/DRM are for) but it stops easy sharing of your streams via link forwarding. Many video CDN providers and players support domain or referrer checks. It’s often just a configuration setting. If you distribute content via APIs, you can also sign each request with a token that includes an authorized domain or timestamp. That way, even if someone steals the URL, it will expire or not work outside your site. Think of domain locking as geofencing for the web, it fences your content to only appear where it should.

6. Block Credential Sharing

As discussed before credential sharing is one of the major causes of video piracy, users often share passwords to their accounts with each other. This results in several simultaneous logins from an account, leading to consumption of the same premium content several times which leads to a loss in revenue that you could have gained from those views.

Enforce limits on how many devices or sessions can use one account simultaneously. For example, allow one stream per account at a time, or a small number of concurrent logins, to prevent a single subscription from feeding dozens of people. Many platforms implement technical barriers like Unique Session IDs or Tokens, IP and Device Tracking, Single Sign-On (SSO) Integration.

-For CMS like WordPress Websites

If your website is based on WordPress you can easily stop credential sharing by using several plugins available. Using this you can restrict the number of users accessing an account at a time. You can use the word press plugin to block simultaneous logins.

By using this plugin, you can ensure that at a time users can only log in from a single device, ultimately stopping the account from being accessed by multiple users at the same time. Also, make sure you have best managed WordPress hosting to avoid any other obstacles in ensuring security.

-For Non-WordPress Websites

In case your website is not based on WordPress you can still restrict concurrent logins. This can be done by allocating a unique ID which is allocated every time a user logs in. Every time a unique ID is active for an account, no other ID is generated and the previous ID cannot be used to log in to the platform.

7. Using SSO for login

Using a Single sign-on for login to the user account has proven to be effective to stop credential sharing. A user can log in to the platform using social logins such as Google, Facebook, etc.

Even though a user might share their login for the video platform easily but a Facebook or Google password is more personal and the user would refrain from sharing it with their friends. Also, since its SSO is user-friendly and it saves trouble such as remembering passwords and login is much simpler with just a click it makes sense to promote this feature to the user.

8. Restrict Watch Time and Expire Access After Use

Another effective way to curb credential sharing is to limit the viewing time for each video per user. This ensures that access is not perpetual and cannot be easily passed along.

For instance, an online course platform might grant users a 48-hour window to complete a module once it’s started. A rental movie could expire 24 hours after the first play. These time-based restrictions reduce piracy risk in several ways:

Reduce Credential Resale Value – If a video link or account becomes unusable after a set duration, there’s no point in reselling or lending it. Pirates can’t offer long-term access using borrowed credentials.

Encourage Legitimate Use – Real users typically complete their viewing within a reasonable timeframe. Pirates logging in later will find the session expired or playback blocked, pushing them toward legitimate access instead.

Limit Uncontrolled Replays – In cases like training or test-prep videos, you can cap the total watch time (e.g., 90 minutes max for a 60-minute video). This discourages re-use by multiple people and prevents screen recording on repeated views.

9. Choosing A Secure Video Hosting Service

When it comes to implementation, not every content owner has the resources to build a custom secure streaming stack. Fortunately, there are enterprise video hosting platforms that provide all-in-one secure content delivery. Using a reputable secure video platform can dramatically raise your piracy defenses with minimal integration effort. Look for providers or CDNs that offer features like:

Built-in DRM and Encryption – VdoCipher offers multi-DRM support out of the box. They handle license servers and key rotation for you. This ensures your content is encrypted and rights-managed without you having to become a DRM expert.

Tokenized URLs / API Security – Secure platforms generate expiring URLs or require signed API requests to fetch videos. This means an authenticated user gets a token to play a video, and if that token is shared, it won’t work after a short time or outside allowed conditions.

Domain Lock and App Restriction – Good platforms let you lock playback to certain domains or even to your mobile app’s credentials. This is often just a setting toggled on your dashboard.

Watermarking and Analytics – Advanced hosting solutions integrate things like dynamic watermarking and viewer analytics. For instance, an enterprise video platform might let you enable invisible forensic watermarks per user, and provide analytics dashboards to spot unusual usage.

Scalability and Performance – Apart from security, using a trusted CDN or hosting ensures your legitimate viewers get good quality and performance. This indirectly helps fight piracy too. Viewers are less tempted to seek pirate streams if your service is fast and reliable.

10. Enforce Geographic Restrictions

Geo-blocking isn’t new, but it’s still a useful tool in the anti-piracy arsenal. This involves restricting video access based on the user’s country or region. Why does this matter for piracy? Often, pirates target content that’s not officially available in their region, or they exploit differences in release times and pricing across markets. By using geo-restrictions, you ensure that only the regions you intend (or have rights for) can access the content, while others are blocked by default.

Geo-blocking is typically implemented via your Content Delivery Network (CDN) or application logic, checking the user’s IP address location. It’s especially important if you have licensing agreements (for example, you only licensed a film for North America, so you must block access elsewhere). But even from an anti-piracy perspective, geo-blocking can contain the spread of your content. Illicit restreams often come from countries with high piracy rates or weaker enforcement. Identifying those regions and tightening restrictions (or monitoring) there can pay off. “Hotspots like the Netherlands, Indonesia, and Hong Kong need tighter geo-blocking, watermarking, and legal focus,” notes one analysis of global piracy trends.

Of course, geo-blocking isn’t foolproof, VPNs and proxy servers can mask locations. Still, it stops casual users and adds another layer that pirates must work around.

How VdoCipher Helps In Stopping Video Piracy?

At present, there are several platforms that provide video protection. But their offering is limited to video encryption without any video DRM technology. This exposes the key, which an informed user can easily identify and use to access the video. A lot of our current customers have faced such issues before finally sticking to our video security solution. This is where Vdocipher comes in, we ensure the highest security for our clients from video piracy. We do this by providing Hollywood grade DRM encryption and our dynamic watermarking technology. Find out more about on how to prevent video download on the blog linked.

• Encrypted DRM Video Streaming – With Vdocipher’s Hollywood grade DRM technology, no one can download your videos using a plugin or any hacks.
• Dynamic Watermarking – You can watermark the IP address, user id, email id, phone no, logo, text overlay to identify the source of the piracy. You can even customize the watermark in terms of its opacity, color, speed, and size as well.
• Server To Player Package – With Vdocipher you not only get video protection but we also provide -Amazon AWS for Servers, CDN, Transcoding, Analytics, API, Dashboard, Plugins, Custom workflows. All these features further add to the security and make it easy to control your videos.
• Smart Online Video Player – With our customizable online video player, you can give access to popular features such as subtitles, speed change, forward rewind options to your users. In case you provide an android app, you can also give an option to keep those videos for offline use without worrying about piracy.
• Screen Capture Blocking in  Mobile Apps – VdoCipher mobile SDK integration default includes screen capture protection in both Android & IOS Apps. Screen capture protection in common browsers like Chrome, and Firefox on the desktop is not possible.
• Backend Licensing & Authentication: OTP-based backend authentication system to keep your videos safe from downloader plugin
• IP, Geo & Time-based Restrictions: Restrict access to particular Geo/IP. Enable restrictions to total user video playtime.
• Piracy and Hacker Identification (Analytics Dashboard): Detailed insights into viewer engagement, video performance, and suspicious activities.
  • Password Sharing Detection: This feature uses total video watch time per user to identify and manage unusual viewing patterns, suggesting password sharing. Figure out if there is any sort of password sharing happening by looking at individual video consumption.
  • Device and Browser Usage Analysis: Track the devices and browsers each subscriber uses, providing insights into the most popular platforms and optimizing content for these preferences.
  • Viewer Engagement Heatmap: Utilize video player heatmap sessions to understand viewer interactions with content, such as which parts are watched, skipped, or rewatched, helping in content optimization.
  • Suspicious Device Playback Monitoring: Focus on monitoring playback attempts on non-regular devices as a security measure to prevent unauthorized access and protect content.
  • Domain Playback Tracking: Use domain playback logs to ensure content is viewed on authorized domains, protecting against unauthorized sharing and distribution.

How Netflix is Tackling Piracy related to Account Sharing?

Last year, Netflix announced that they would start making users pay an extra fee to share their Netflix account with someone living outside the household. This account-sharing crackdown is supposed to be rolled out globally by the end of March. 

According to Netflix, about 100 million households use shared accounts. Cracking down on password sharing might prove to be a good opportunity for their revenue growth. 

How will Netflix stop you from sharing your password?

Going forward, Netfile will ask their users to verify their identity through a code sent to the account holder’s email or text message, or by logging in with a recognized device. If a user is unable to verify their identity, they will have to either create a new sub-account by paying a small fee to add users. 

In order to use a device not part of the account owner’s household a user will need to enter a verification code, sent to the primary email or phone number linked to the account. You’ll have to enter the code within 15 minutes in order to gain access to the account. Netflix will use, the IP address, and device ID in order to determine if the device is part of the household.

FAQs

How software piracy can be controlled?

The strategies to mitigate software piracy include, Use of multi-DRM download system, Employing Antipiracy Software, Implementing Obfuscation, Tamper-Proof Software, Software Watermarking, Copyrights, Patents, and End User Agreements, Providing Demo or Trial Versions, Promoting Antipiracy Incentives.

How can piracy be prevented in regard to data and information?

Here are some of the key approaches identified from different sources, Affordable Access to Content, Public Relations and Education, Barriers to Entry for Pirates, Active Monitoring and Legal Action, Consumer Responsibility, Industry Cooperation, Innovative Use of Technology.

How does piracy affect the film industry?

The financial toll of piracy on the U.S. economy is nearly $30 billion annually, with pirated videos viewed over 200 billion times in 2018 alone. This loss translates into up to 560,000 industry job losses each year, affecting not just direct stakeholders like filmmakers and distributors but also ancillary businesses and services associated with film production​​. The ripple effects of piracy extend beyond immediate financial damage, posing a threat to creativity by reducing investment in new and innovative projects. Independent films and smaller projects, which often rely on box office returns and legitimate sales for success, are disproportionately affected.

Data sources:

https://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/white-paper/inside-the-world-of-video-pirates.pdf 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/06/26/pirated-video-gets-viewed-over-200-billion-times-a-year-infographic/#75f4b25a2bcf

https://www.ncta.com/whats-new/how-much-is-digital-video-piracy-costing-the-us-economy

https://www.theglobalipcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Digital-Video-Piracy.pdf