The damage caused by piracy to the world of books is serious and there are still far too few Italians, seven out of ten, who think they will not be punished for their illicit acts.
The alarm comes from the
third Ipsos survey
, commissioned by the
Italian Publishers Association, presented today to the Ministry of Culture in Rome
.
Publishers lose
705 million euros in sales a year,
more than a quarter of the overall value of the market (28%, calculated net of school publishing and exports).
4,900 jobs go up in smoke, which becomes 12,000 if we also include related industries.
The loss for the country system is 1.75 billion euros, with 298 million in lost revenue for the tax authorities
.
Although "decreasing compared to 2021, there is still considerable damage" said the president of Ipsos
Nando Pagnoncelli
, illustrating the data at the meeting, moderated by the director of ANSA
Luigi Contu
, in which the president of the AIE
Innocenzo Cipolletta
and of Fieg,
Andrea Riffeser Monti , with the president of the Culture, Science and Education Commission of the Chamber
Federico Mollicone
concluding the work
.
"The translation of digital piracy into values is merciless" underlined Mollicone. "The loss of sales is unsustainable for Cipolletta and a major cultural awareness campaign is necessary as soon as possible for Andrea Riffeser Monti.
I also invite you to evaluate an important action to educate from the bottom up to the professional categories that are those that commit the most crimes."
78% of university students but also 49% of professionals, including doctors, lawyers, accountants, notaries, architects and engineers, pirate printed and digital books and databases and 31% of the population over 15 years of age carry out piracy acts .
The percentage of those who say they are aware of the illicitness/illegality of piracy is 79% in 2023 (84% in 2019).
70% of the sample interviewed believes it is unlikely that they will be caught and punished, a percentage that has increased by 4 percentage points compared to 2019. "We consider the work of raising citizens' awareness to be fundamental" says Cipolletta.
The research, conducted on a sample of around 4000 interviews, also shows that the estimated piracy acts in a year are 108.4 million, almost 300 thousand every day although down by 8% compared to 2021. But "the operations of the There is no shortage of Guardia di Finanza and we need to communicate them because they serve to make more people responsible" noted the commander of the Special Goods and Services Unit of the Guardia di Finanza, Gaetano Cutarelli, who spoke at the meeting attended by Benedetta Alessia Liberatore of Agcom, Salvatore Sica, president of the Permanent Advisory Committee for Copyright, Mauro Tosca, Aie anti-piracy manager and the writer and psychotherapist Stefania Andreoli.
"From 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2023, the Corps' departments, during 2,144 interventions to protect copyright, seized over 51.2 million products, reporting over 4,200 subjects to the judicial authorities. In in particular, in the book and publishing sector, in the same period, over 1.4 million counterfeit books, brochures, printed materials, newspapers and various publications were seized" explained Cutarelli.
"We must strongly defend the value of the work of authors, publishers, distributors, bookshops, libraries, translators, and the entire paper supply chain because it constitutes an invaluable cultural heritage" said Mollicone.
For this reason "Parliament intervened quickly and unanimously with law 93 of 2023 which protects - he added - intellectual property and the relevant subjects involved".
"The digital revolution should not be scary, it should be regulated, not demonized.
At the source of the law we must take into account what is happening.
Generative AI can create creative content and lead to a clash between human and artificial intelligence.
We have to get there one step sooner.
An example that we could follow in updating the law is what ANSA did on the digital certification of its news.
Such a mechanism could be extended to algorithms, to ebooks, and provided for by law in all browsers in the digital ecosystem when content is downloaded", concluded Mollicone.
Liberatore highlighted that "with coordinated action by the various institutional entities in the field we can achieve good results".
On copyright "we are very focused on AI. The real battle will be the time and effectiveness of the new regulation. If it is not retroactive we are all joking" explained Sica.
The fact remains that "we must keep our guard up because times are dark with respect to human behavior" warned Andreoli.
For further information Agenzia ANSA Piracy in the world of books in a nutshell - News - Ansa.it We offer in a nutshell the data on the damage caused by piracy in the world of books, according to the third Ipsos survey commissioned by Aie, presented today in Rome.
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