May 6, 2018 – Croatia is one of the world champions in illegal downloading
Apart from being a crime on its own, online piracy is causing the IT and entertainment industries annual losses in revenue amounting to billions of dollars. According to the latest reports, revenue lost to piracy will reach $51,6 billion by the end of 2022; some experts are certain this type of user behaviour will never be dealt with efficiently.
Looking at the latest reported figures, it’s obvious Croatia isn’t an exception to the rule. Research conducted by the company MUSO in 2016 showed that Croatia ranks fourth on the list of top piracy countries in the world. The relevant criteria in this case wasn’t the quantity of pirated content, but the frequency – we illegally download online content more often than other nations. Croatia comes fourth after Latvia, Bulgaria and Lithuania, and is closely followed by Spain, Greece and Serbia.
According to Head of Film & TV at MUSO, visits to online piracy sites for TV content have increased globally by 3,4 percent since 2016. At the end of 2017, TV piracy based on torrent sites increased as well, reports Zimo.
In Germany, only 1,71% of the population using the internet dabbles in illegal downloading or streaming. It’s safe to assume the low figures have something to do with draconian fines: if you pirate online content in Germany, you can easily be served a fine ranging from 900 to 2000 euro per downloaded item. On the other hand, when it comes to Croatian law, internet service providers don’t have the authority to monitor illegal downloading as they don’t have access to content. They’re only authorised to look into the matter after a warrant issued by the court has been served to the user.
