Anti-piracy efforts lead to an increase in sales of legal copies, but only slightly

With piracy on the rise, the best thing publishers can do is file DMCA cease-and-desist letters from Google or take legal action against those involved in piracy. It’s no wonder that several cases are already pending against Z Library and Anna’s Archive, two of the most well-known distributors of copyrighted content. With pirated content available in limited quantities, selling legal copies is likely to see higher demand. At least, that’s what’s expected. But is that how it works in real life?

As TorrentFreak reported, researchers from the University of Warsaw in Poland were also intrigued by this topic and decided to find out the truth. They started by collaborating with some of the largest publishers and an anti-piracy organization. Their goal was to find out how takedown requests or other anti-piracy measures affect the sales of legal copies. However, the research only included printed books, as the e-book market in Poland is of limited size, but the effort led to some exciting results, it must be said.

The researchers also followed a clear and well-thought-out strategy to arrive at a result that was as close to reality as possible. First, a dozen publishers decided to take part in the experiment. The number of titles they submitted ranged from 5 to 53. These were then compared with a similar number of titles for which no removal requests were submitted to Google.

The matching was done carefully to ensure that the titles were matched with titles of similar price, format, etc. to ensure a fair comparison. Now one group of titles could be sold freely, while another group benefited from takedown notices for the corresponding pirated copies. The Polish anti-piracy organization Plagiat.Pl found pirated copies of the titles on 53 websites and issued takedown notices for a whole year.

The next step in the experiment was to find out whether such takedown requests were effective. To do this, the researchers formed a group of three assistants who were asked whether the titles against which takedown requests were filed were still as freely available as before. An online search revealed that such titles were harder to find and fewer copies were available online. Unfortunately, this did not contribute to a significant increase in the sale of legal copies.

“We were able to significantly reduce unauthorized distribution, which had a small positive effect on sales,” the researchers write.

“Using classical analysis, we found that the value is not significantly different from zero. A Bayesian approach that used previous ‘piracy’ studies to generate a sign led us to conclude that piracy protection resulted in a significant increase in revenue of about 9 percent.”

However, the researchers stated that the result would have been different with a larger sample, which could have provided a better overall picture of the scenario. The same is true for e-books, as pirating an e-book is easier than printing a copy. In any case, the research helped answer the relevant question of how takedown requests or other legal actions against pirated copies affect identical legal versions. It must also be said that further research is needed to reach a more conclusive conclusion. Let’s hope other researchers follow up on this.

Since I am very interested in technology, I always keep myself up to date with the latest developments in technology and gadgets. This includes smartphones or tablets, but also AI and self-driving cars, the latter being my latest trend. Besides writing, I like to watch videos, read, listen to music or experiment with different recipes. I am also very interested in film and will probably make a film at some point.