Half a billion in the world of publishing (equal to 23% of the market value, excluding education and exports), 1,3 billion overall in the country system and 216 million in the tax authorities. This is the account of the damage that piracy in the book market causes only in Italy, according to the Ipsos survey conducted for the AIE. THE 300.000 acts of piracy committed every day by Italians (for a total of 107 million shares a year) also destroy 8.800 jobs, 3.600 of which in the book supply chain. The most worrying and shameful thing that emerges from the research is that piracy concerns books of various kinds, not only university but also professional ones: indeed, if it is true that 80% of university students engage in piracy, it has unfortunately been verified that 61% of professionals are also damaging the book market, i.e. categories such as lawyers, notaries, accountants, engineers, architects.
The phenomenon, in general, involves more than one in three Italians over the age of 15 (36%), who almost always commit the offense knowingly (84% of cases), even if a good portion considers it a little or not at all serious behavior (39%), and a decisive majority (66%) 15%) believe that it is unlikely that the offenses will be discovered and punished. How does piracy happen in most cases? Through the web: one in four Italians over the age of 7 has downloaded for free at least once an ebook or audiobook from illegal sites or platforms on the Internet. Even the good old photocopied resists, but only XNUMX% have purchased at least one photocopied book. To be damaged are all sectors of the publishing world: lost sales in the miscellaneous sector (fiction and non-fiction) amounted to 29,2 million copies (books and ebooks) per year, for a loss of turnover of 324 million euros; those lost in the university sector are 4 million, for a turnover of 105 million euros; those in the professional sector and databases amounted to 2,9 million, equal to 99 million euros in revenues.
As the president of the FIEG (Italian federation of newspaper publishers), Andrea Riffeser Monti underlined, “digital has brought opportunities but also risks: from online press reviews created and disseminated without authorisation, to the unauthorized sharing of newspaper pdfs, also through social platforms, telephone or messaging applications. It is necessary to improve the means of protection against all forms of parasitic exploitation of copyright”. For this reason, FIEG and AIE have jointly asked the Government to intervene to stop the bleeding in a market that is already not experiencing a particularly flourishing moment, with the newspaper crisis.
"As a government - admitted the undersecretary to the presidency of the Council with responsibility for information and publishing, Andrea Martella – we cannot ignore the data emerging from this research and the request for help that comes from the publishing sector. Piracy must be fought with the repression of illegal behavior, promoting education on legality but also with support for the entire supply chain, which has been so seriously affected. Through publishing 5.0 we are studying new tools of support for periodical and daily publishing because, as the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella recalled on a visit to the Ansa agency last week, primary information 'constitutes a decisive element for democracy in our country. This makes us understand the need for support from the institutions'.”
“Those of Ipsos – commented the president of AIE Ricardo Franco Levi – are dramatic figures that go beyond any forecast. Data that require and impose a strong contrast action through the repression of illegal phenomena and the education of users, who are not always fully aware of the effects of their behaviour. Strong support is also needed for demand which allows the request for information and culture to be legally exercised. 18App to be returned to the original equipment and tax deduction for the purchase of books are the decisive tools”.
