Report: UK’s online copyright infringement rate less than Australia’s

A UK report on online copyright infringement has found that the UK level of 25% is much lower than that of Australia (38%) and Canada (26%).

The three countries share the same methodology.

The data from The Online Copyright Infringement (OCI) tracker and issued by the Intellectual Property Office shows that there is a trend to pay for online content through subscription services.

The use of illegal services has decreased by 5% since 2013.

It is more pronounced with younger users, with infringement levels down 7% from 2015 for 16 to 24-year-olds.

Over half of this demographic now pays to access at least one subscription service.

The highest level of infringement is for TV programs, at 23%, sports content (21%) and software (20%).

Music makes up 8% and films at 19%.

Among reasons given for the swing to paid services were convenience, quality and fears of viruses/malware/spyware.

You’ll find the report here.

Closer to home, The Australian Site-Blocking Efficacy Report, produced by online analysis company INCOPRO earlier this year found that illegal piracy and streaming dropped 25% in the last year.

Traffic to court-ordered ISP blocks of 59 sites in August 2017 dropped a further 55%.