Digital piracy falls in Spain for second consecutive year

MADRID, April 6 (Xinhua) -- Digital piracy fell in Spain in absolute terms for the second consecutive year according to a study published by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture on Friday and presented by the General Director of Cultural Industries and Books, Oscar Saenz de Santa Maria.

Saenz de Santa Maria informed that between January 2017 and March 2018, the number of websites used for illegal downloads among the 250 most viewed sites in Spain had fallen from 19 down to 10, with only one of those having clear identified links to Spain.

He explained this reduction was "in good part down to the measures," put into effect by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport and the increase of the legal offers for downloads in Spain over the past two years.

Among the measures put into effect are blocking illegal download sites when they are discovered, combined with work alongside mobile service providers to discover and prevent access to 'pirate' websites.

These and similar actions are combined with campaigns to raise awareness of the damage that watching pirated videos or listening to illegally downloaded music can do, especially to up and coming artists.

One such campaign is named "Don't pirate the future" which was put into effect in October 2017 and publicized on TV and radio spots, as well as graphic material in the written media.

The Ministry of Education and Culture says that thanks to these and similar actions "Spain is no longer mentioned on an international level in discussions about countries where digital piracy is especially significant."

A second study published on Friday by the Observatory of Digital Piracy and Use of Digital Content, estimated digital piracy fell by 6 percent in 2017 with music the most pirated content with an estimated value of 1,560 million euros, followed by TV series with a value of 945 million euros and then films, valued at 726 million euros. Enditem