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Western Europe "Rife" with Online Piracy

Kris Graft's picture

By Kris Graft

February 17, 2009

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Western Europe is "rife" with online game piracy, said U.S.-based videogame industry trade group the Entertainment Software Association on Tuesday.

The ESA's research into game piracy is part of the "Special 301 Report" filed this week with the U.S. Trade Representative.

The group called for "better mechanisms to protect and enforce intellectual property rights in the networked digital environment."

Italy led the countries with the highest share of illegal downloads with 17 percent, according to the studies conducted in December 2008. Spain had 15.1 percent, followed by France with 7.9 percent, Germany with 6.9 percent and Poland with 6.1 percent.

Heaviest downloading countries per capita were Israel, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Poland.

ESA said in a statement that Western Europe is "home to some of the world’s most active countries engaged in online game piracy."

The Special 301 Report also found "alarmingly high volumes of illegal game downloads" on two peer-to-peer networks, BitTorrent and eDonkey.

ESA president Michael Gallagher had strong words against piracy practitioners: “Piracy is the single greatest threat to the innovation, artistic commitment and technological advancements enjoyed by millions of consumers worldwide.

“Piracy is a job killer that the world economy cannot afford in these difficult economic times. Countries that skirt obligations to combat piracy need to understand the unacceptable damage they are facilitating —and those countries that invest  in protecting intellectual property rights and ensure that piracy is not tolerated at any level should be lauded.”

While the ESA's study highlighted issues in online piracy, physical disc piracy and the distribution of accompanying copy protection-circumvention devices remains a problem, according to the group.

The group released additional statistics regarding piracy:

  •  
  • Users across 223 separate countries, territories and colonies downloaded illegal copies of games. Downloads of the two most popular titles were estimated to have been made across 219 countries, territories and colonies.
  • During December 2008, based on a study of only thirteen titles, users downloaded 6,429,279 illegal copies of these titles. The total number of completed downloads made of the two most popular titles during this one-month period was 4,787,441.
  • Heaviest downloading countries per capita were Israel, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Poland.
  • Leading ISPs –  During this period, resources provided by
  1. Telecom Italia (Italy) were implicated in 11.6% of completed downloads, followed by
  2. Telefonica de Espana (Spain) (7.8%)
  3. France Telecom (France) (3.9%)
  4. Polish Telecom (Poland) (3.6%)
  5. Deutsche Telecom AG (Germany) (2.6%)
  6. IUnet (Italy) (2.1%)
  7. Neuf Cegetel (France ) (1.6%)
  8. Jazz Telecom S.A. (Spain) (1.57%)
  9. Free SAS (France) (1.56%)
  10. Uni2 (Spain) (1.53%)

Chris_Eals's picture
On February 18th Chris_Eals said:

Well maybe if game makers weren't so eager to treat european gamers like shit with shoddy translations, late release dates (not to mention non-releases) and massive price hikes, perhaps more people would be happy to shell out for the games rather than downloading them.

squarepusher's picture
On February 18th squarepusher said:

[quote]“Piracy is a job killer that the world economy cannot afford in these difficult economic times. Countries that skirt obligations to combat piracy need to understand the unacceptable damage they are facilitating —and those countries that invest in protecting intellectual property rights and ensure that piracy is not tolerated at any level should be lauded.”[/quote]

What an absolute crock - so because the world economy is going bust because of contagious crookedness and mafia-like stealing involved in the derivatives market, the average Joe needs to have even more laws levied against him because we can't have illegitimate copying going around now, can we?

Here's a big wake-up call to the industry: if your company's going bust, it's because your business strategy sucked or was not prepared to cope with the times. Strongarming the consumer and going after him with these ridiculous laws is only going to make him madder and engage in these activities. We are NOT to blame that your company is going bankrupt - look around you, every company is going bankrupt. In times of economic depression, entertainment is not a necessity - it becomes an afterthought. Tough. Deal with it and adjust accordingly, but don't come after the consumer with these mafioso-like tactics.

squarepusher's picture
On February 18th squarepusher said:

'Piracy is the single greatest threat to innovation'

C'mon, what a bunch of bull... who honestly believes this crap?

You know what the single greatest threat to innovation is? A bunch of dimwitted PR managers and publishers thinking they know better what people like to play than the developers itself.

Aionic_Kid's picture
On February 17th Aionic_Kid said:

In Spain the ISP fee carries a tax destined for the national intelectual property lobby. If online piracy was to be pursued, this tax should be taken away fron consumers, it's that simple. It's one thing or the other, never both.

alexkidd's picture
On February 17th alexkidd said:

Having lived there for a while, I can't imagine any legislation making a jot of difference in Italy. I mean, technically it's 'against the law' to be on the roads without a drivers license in Italy, but if you've ever been there you'll know exactly how little that means.

Don't get me wrong, I love the country, but it's a different world.