EU Commission report finds no link between piracy and sales

Statistics are ruthless, at least in this case.

A report by the EU Commission, titled ‘Estimating displacement rates of copyrighted material in the EU’, states that a link between piracy and sales could not be found.

The report touches upon all types of media, including video games, and gathered data from six countries: UK, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, and Sweden. The results show that in 2014 51% of adults and 72% of minors have illegally downloaded or streamed copy with Poland and Spain having significantly higher piracy rates than the other 4 countries.

Despite those numbers, the authors have not been able to find a ‘robust’ link between piracy and sales of copyrighted materials.

“That does not necessarily mean that piracy has no effect but only that the statistical analysis does not prove with sufficient reliability that there is an effect.”

If you are into it here is the full thing.