Almost one million people involved in the latest operation against access to pirated audiovisuals. Yet another blow to an illegal industry that damages over 1.2 billion euros in Italy. A vast police operation against audiovisual piracy, ordered by the Catania District Prosecutor’s Office is underway on the national territory. The cyber security operational centers of the postal police are carrying out searches and seizures throughout the national territory of members of a transnational criminal association. The operation, called ‘Gotha’, has shed light on 70% of illegal national streaming involving over 900,000 users with profits of millions of euros per month.
The cities involved
The cities affected by the searches are: Ancona, Avellino, Bari, Benevento, Bologna, Brescia, Catania, Cosenza, Fermo, Messina, Naples, Novara, Palermo, Perugia, breaking latest news, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Salerno, Syracuse, Trapani, L ‘ Aquila and Taranto. To illustrate the details of the ‘Gotha’ operation, a conference was called at 11 at the headquarters of the Mobile Police department of Catania
Damage equal to 6,500,000 jobs
The phenomenon of audiovisual piracy, which for one in four Italians is not even considered a crime, has important repercussions on the economic fabric. More than 6,500 jobs are lost every year. As if more than 1,500 companies shut down. The account is that audiovisual piracy according to the Ipsos survey commissioned by Fapav, the Federation for the protection of audiovisual and multimedia content. It is the third survey in order of time, after those of 2009 and 2011. «After six years – Federico Bagnoli Rossi, Fapav Secretary General explained recently – we are updating data and research, but with a clear time horizon of the program. We have made a three-year agreement with Ipsos ».
The phenomenon enjoys widespread self-indulgence among pirates, high awareness, but only 1 in 4 adults believe that it is a serious gesture. Of course, piracy 2.0 has changed its skin, it has become more sophisticated. And the data from the Ipsos / Fapav research can only alarm. Starting with the fact that 4 out of 10 adults in the last year have committed acts of piracy. And on balance, more than 20 million people are trafficked.
A cost of 1.2 billion
The income statement is salty: the financial damage for the audiovisual industry is indicated at 686 million euros per year. But considering all the Italian economic sectors, 1.2 billion euros are lost due to audiovisual piracy. And in this cut, the Italian state is also the loser, given that the loss of turnover of companies would lead to a contraction in GDP of about 427 million euros and that the tax revenues that could arrive – and that instead do not even come close to the state coffers – were quantified by the survey at 198 million euros.