This has affected anyone who produces content – from artists, traditional entertainment, and literature to businesses. Legitimate businesses have to compete with pirated, free content. This has major disruptive effects on businesses.

Let’s explore how piracy detriments your business.

Why’s Piracy a Major Business Problem?

Illegal streaming sites, stores selling counterfeited products and social media pages replicating original products affects businesses in many ways. The impact can be economic, social and reputational for a business.

Economic Impact

Piracy has a trickle-down economic effect on content creators and other businesses. With more access to pirated content, businesses bear revenue losses. The music industry faces a staggering loss of $2.7 billion annually in downstream retail business and the recording industry. The impact is collectively felt by companies, employees and creators alike.

You’re enabling online piracy when you download pirated music content or share digital content from unauthorized. People don’t realize the catastrophic effect of piracy on individual businesses and the overall economic growth. Over 70,000 jobs are lost annually in the US due to piracy which is alarming in terms of unemployment in the country.

According to the International Chamber of Commerce, every business, customer, employee, and creator will be affected by online piracy in 2022, with an estimated revenue loss of $991 billion.

Reputational Hit

Piracy has a direct impact on brand image. You spend your budget and time creating a brand image, and someone steals or misuses your name for their gain. Businesses, independent creators and well-known brands at high have their brand image tarnished at the hands of piracy.

For example, software companies face a diminishing reputation due to pirated copies of programs. The flooding impact of online counterfeit products also results in negative feedback and reviews from customers.

Social Impact

Apart from the detrimental effect on brand image and billion-dollar losses, piracy also affects society. Downloading pirated products and content has inherent risks. You’re 50% more at risk of device malware when downloading pirated copies. This may not seem like a business problem, but companies should promote ethical and responsible operations as part of society.

If you’re a business affected by piracy, you can invest in our anti-piracy protection services. At Onsist, our experts surf the deep and dark web to check for pirated and illegal copies of products. Our dark web monitoring services, along with anti-piracy protection services, can help you protect your brand image. Contact us to jumpstart your brand protection service today.