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27-04-2023
From navigators to hackers
A short while ago, the .PT legal team attended a colloquium promoted by the Portuguese Association for the Defence of Audiovisual Works (FEVIP), in partnership with the Polícia Judiciária (PJ), which took place at the PJ headquarters in Lisbon.
After the usual acknowledgements and opening of the event by the National Director of the Polícia Judiciária, Dr. Luís Neves, and already in a more serious register, there was an information that echoed in the room: the crimes of digital piracy cause annual damages in the order of 200 million Euros, "estimates below".
Next, still stunned by the wave, we are told that cultural industries have a weight of about 3% of the national gross domestic product (GDP).
As a final blow, another extraordinary piece of negative data: the overwhelming number of accesses, precisely 55 million, to sites with illegal audiovisual content. It's estimated that 10% of the Portuguese population consumes these contents, and that the age group of the biggest adepts of this practice is between 16-24 years of age, something expected, since this is the most digitalized generation.
These numbers leave anyone astonished, they are sizeable numbers to be respected, but when associated to a criminal offence this value is enhanced in our minds, at least in mine it echoed in such a way that led me to have an attitude that is not typically standard in a jurist, to do accounts (be surprised!).
Well, according to the latest data from Pordata, Portugal has 10.407.707 inhabitants, if we have 55 million accesses to sites with illegal audiovisual contents per year, we have almost 5 times more criminal offences than inhabitants in our country, and furthermore, if 10% of the Portuguese population (approximately) consumes this type of contents, we are talking about almost 1.5 million that incur in this illicit.
Another exercise I did was the following, the cultural industries sector represents 3% of the GDP, and for comparison the biggest foreign investment in national history, Autoeuropa, represented 1.5% of the national GDP in 2022, exactly half of the cultural industries sector. What does one thing have to do with the other? You ask well.
I'll explain, I risk saying that none of the readers that will read this article has ever stolen a car, however, I don't risk saying the same about the access to sites with illegal audiovisual contents, this is the endemic and social problem.
The use of these sites is considered banal and commonplace, I've never heard any of my friends say "damn... I don't have a car to go watch the football game, let's steal one", but I've heard several times "we'll watch the game at home! just plug the computer in the television and it's done! In the first example (except for some criminals), the social attitude would be to dissuade the illicit intent that is flourishing there, while in the second case, the great majority (except for some good Samaritans), would be to accept the proposal and spend the evening committing a criminal offence without even being aware of it.
This complete lack of notion occurs for one reason, lack of digital education. The Z generation is the generation that does not know what it is to pay for digital content, they have always accessed it for free and for them it is quite normal, it is the world they grew up in, what is abnormal is to pay to access a digital service. It is up to us, more mature (the old are the rags) to educate future generations, and the greater the investment in education, the lower the investment in the justice system. The view to be adopted will be that of prevention and not of correction, for each young person who is judicially sanctioned, it may be understood that the process of sensitization and awareness of society in general has failed.
Taking the example of the theft of a car vs the illegal viewing of a football match, how many of us know a car thief? Exactly...none. And pirates who illegally access audiovisual content? Right... The idea to retain should be that it is not because it is not aimed at a tangible good or that it is a matter of large organisations that it is less criminal, or because it is a victimless crime as it is commonly said, which is not even true, there are thousands of people who live from audiovisual production, this assimilation of principle comes from the base, it comes from digital education.
I wish this article had a lighter tone, but it is impossible to lighten something that puts jobs at risk, obliterates investments and greatly impacts the subsistence of thousands of families. If we were once recognised as fearless navigators, today we certainly don't want to be seen and recognised as pirates blindfolded to the law.
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Please note: the articles on this blog may not convey the opinion of .PT, but of its author.
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