Anti-piracy campaigns could be having the opposite effect on users, and may be increasing the pirating of digital content, according to new research.

The paper Doing more with less: Behavioral insights for anti-piracy messages argued that the current war on media piracy is not having the desired impact and is putting focus on the wrong areas.

Researchers have said that these current iterations of anti-piracy messaging, which tend to take a “more-is-better” approach, end up encouraging, rather deterring, piracy.

Professor of economics, law, and society at ESSCA School of Management Gilles Grolleau and Luc Meunier, professor of finance at ESSCA, carried out the research.

In the paper, the pair used the “lens of behavioural economics” to analyse the regularly used elements in anti-piracy messages. These include infringement statistics, the amount of money that piracy costs, and a mix of strong and weak arguments.

Researchers argued that the current heuristic used in these messages “can generate counterproductive outcomes” due to the “statistical victim bias, the scope severity paradox, the social norm trap, and the excessive number of arguments”.

The economic impact of piracy, the academics observe, is substantial. According to figures cited in the paper, around 37% of software worldwide is pirated; an estimated 38% of people obtain songs unlawfully; and US digital video providers lose between $29.2 and $71 billion annually to piracy.

According to research conducted by MUSO, around 52.5 billion piracy websites were visited in the first quarter of this year – a 29.3% increase when compared to Q1 2021.

However, using statistics in this way fails to modify the behaviour of those pirating when presented as a part of an anti-piracy campaign, the paper said.

Grolleau and Meunier said: “Specifically, we argue that regulators and copyright holders backing these campaigns fall prey to ‘the more-is-better’ heuristic.”

They added: “They inadvertently and counter-productively marshal the high number of victims (scope severity paradox, statistical victim bias), the high number of piracy actions (social norm trap), and the high number of arguments in disfavour of piracy or in favour of legal ways (excessive number of arguments, ‘presenter bias’) in anti-piracy campaigns.”

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One issue with piracy, the paper found, is that copyright holders and consumers don’t view the act in the same way. Rights holders view piracy as theft, whilst infringers use terms like “file sharing” to describe their activities– which rights holders would consider a euphemism for theft.

“An identifiable victim elicits higher emotional reactions and willingness to act and help than numerous victims suffering from the same difficulties,” the paper suggested.

However, anti-piracy campaigns like the UK’s “Get it Right from a Genuine Site” focus on the high number of victims rather than telling the story of a sympathetic victim.

Grolleau and Meunier suggested that, instead of pushing statistics on infringers and dictating desired behaviour, rights holders might be better off expressing gratitude toward customers.

“Displaying descriptive information such as how widespread piracy is to paying users is ill-advised,” they stated.

“Thanking users who choose legal means to get the desired products for their support might be more efficient.”

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