Brussels : Plenty of people download music from the internet every day, but illegal downloading has a huge economic impact and could put more than one million people out of work by 2015, experts say.
A study into internet piracy by a Paris-based consultancy published on Wednesday showed that 1.2 million jobs in the Eur-opean Union could be lost over the next five years if more is not done to stop illegal downloading.
The study by TERA Consultants for the International Chamber of Commerce focused on piracy in Europe's music, film, television and software industries.
Those industries generated 860 billion euros (Dh4.3 trillion) and employed 14.4 million people in 2008. But in the same year, 10 billion euros and 186,000 jobs were lost to piracy, the study found.
If that trend continues then up to 1.2 million jobs and 240 billion euros worth of European commerce could be wiped out by 2015.
"In the near future and even today in 2010, we observe increasing bandwidth, increasing penetration rate in terms of the internet," said TERA Consultant's Patrice Geoffron, explaining that piracy was only likely to escalate.
Heavy impact
"If we combine all those elements, obviously the impact in a few years won't remain stable compared to what it was in 2008."
The bulk of illegal downloading targets music, television and video sites, with consumers using "peer-to-peer" formats to download songs and video clips onto their laptops and home computers from websites without paying a fee. In that respect it has a disproportionate impact on the creative industries, with musicians, actors and artists standing to lose the most from unfettered downloading, experts say.
Agnete Haaland, president of the International Actors Federation, believes consumers need to be made more aware of the damaging economic and social impact of piracy.
