A survey released on June 22 by the U.S. consumers by the Digital Citizens Alliance offers additional evidence of the strong link between video piracy and malware. According to the Digital Citizens Alliance, 13% of respondents admitted to using devices like Kodi boxes or jail-broken Amazon Firesticks to view pirated copies of copyrighted movies and TV shows. Of those users of piracy devices, 49% reported experiencing malware in the last year and 25% reported a malware problem in the prior three months. Check out the Digital Citizens Alliance website – including its handy infographic – for more on the survey's findings.
In a June blog post, I noted the dangers of malicious software to users of illicit streaming devices and illegal IPTV services. Those dangers were the issue focus of the U.S. Trade Representative's 2019 Review of Notorious Markets Report. FSF President Randolph May and I also addressed the dangers of malware to users of illicit streaming devices and illegal IPTV services in our newest book, Modernizing Copyright Law for the Digital Age – Constitutional Foundations for Reform.
Piracy of copyrighted video content is violation of the exclusive property rights of copyright owners, and therefore wrong in itself. But as the Digital Citizens Alliance's survey reminds us, video piracy also poses harms to the viewers of pirated content.
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