In the commercial created by the Department for Information and Publishing together with the Communications Regulatory Authority (Agcom), former Inter and national team striker Bobo Vieri gets straight to the point: “Don’t help crime, kick piracy.” A campaign, the one for which he is the testimonial, which brings attention to the issue of online piracy.
In Italy, service users illegal streamingvictims of theft of personal data and digital scams, suffer an average economic loss of around 1,200 euros per person, which exceeds 1,500 euros in the age group between 45 and 64 years. The total economic damage went from 1.24 billion euros in 2022 to 1.32 billion in 2023, to exceed 1.42 billion euros in 2024, with an increase of 14.5 percent over three years.
This is what emerges from the study “The hidden price of piracy“, created by the Institute for Competitiveness (I-Com), which delves into the relationship between pirated streaming services and cybersecurity through the analysis of risks for users and the estimate of the average economic loss for victims. But that’s not all. Audiovisual piracy also endangers the professional opportunities of new generations, with over 34 thousand jobs lost by 2030 in the creative industry, of which around 27 thousand concentrated in film, television and audiovisual production.
Piracy in football
We are talking about a phenomenon of significant dimensions, if we consider that, according to the research Fapav/Ipsos on audiovisual piracy in Italy, concerns approximately 40 percent of the adult population in our country. In 2024, 38 percent committed at least one act of piracy by illicitly enjoying films (29 percent), series/fiction (23 percent), programs (22 percent) or live sports (15 percent), with an overall estimate of approximately 295 million acts of piracy carried out. Sports piracy, now practiced by 15 percent of the adult population, sees football as its most representative content. Following are Formula 1, Tennis and MotoGP.
In line with what has been found in past years, pirates of audiovisual content are mainly concentrated among those under 35 (39 percent), are mainly employed (60 percent), have a higher level of education than the Italian population (21 percent of graduates) and are geographically more concentrated in southern Italy and the Islands (40 percent).
“These are subjects who, in addition to possible administrative sanctions, unknowingly expose themselves to numerous cyber threats”, explains Stefano da Empoli, president of I-Com, to The Vermilion. Which goes into the specifics of the most widespread malicious initiatives. “Illegal platforms are among the main vehicles for the diffusion of malwarephishing attacks and the stealing of users’ sensitive personal data, which is then resold on the dark web.”
Breach of personal data
Increases the risk in providing personal data. “This is why those who use illegal services should evaluate the costs-benefits of their actions. Often, however, these people do not see a real danger”, specifies the president of I-Com. The numbers that emerge from the study are consistent with what was also found across the border: in the United Kingdom, research by BeStreamWise from 2025 highlights that 40 percent of pirate users suffered an average loss of 1,680 pounds, around 1,900 euros. A survey conducted by Corsearch and The Industry Trust for IP Awareness also reveals how 76 percent of the most visited pirate sites expose users to financial fraud.
And when we ask him if the topic is also ethical, Stefano da Empoli has no doubts: “Those who rely on pirated streaming sites have no sense of responsibility. But, while avoiding false moralisms, what matters is to increase awareness of the dangers of piracy, especially among young people”. The latter, as we have seen, in addition to being among the subjects most exposed to digital risks, are also the most penalized by the increasingly impactful effects in terms of job losses. According to the I-Com study, in 2025 alone piracy would have already cost 3,400 jobs in this sector, with an increasing trend (+47 percent) compared to 2024.
Mafias in the digital age
When examining the phenomenon of audiovisual piracy in Italy, it is also necessary to observe the countermeasures. In particular, the estimates from the I-Com research were developed on the basis of data referring to the period prior to the introduction of the online platform Piracy Shieldactive from 1 February 2024, which represents the main tool adopted in our country against the illegal use of audiovisual content. Established with law no. 93 of 14 July 2023 and which entered into force on the following 8 August, gave Agcom greater powers for more efficient and timely action to combat acts of online piracy.
In short, events like the one narrated in the film are light years away.”Mixed by Erry” (2023), directed by Sydney Sibilia, about the rise and fall of the king of pirated cassette tapes in Naples. The protagonist of the film, based on a true story, is Enrico Frattasio, a DJ from Forcella; his pirated compilation cassettes had marked the adolescence of young people in the Nineties. Here, however, the phenomenon is very different. “We are talking about real criminals, who no longer operate in the darkness of their bedroom by pirating CDs and DVDs. They are criminal organizations in all respects, which aim to obtain much larger profits.”
The Cloudflare case
The clash between Agcom and. continues without interruption Cloudflare on Piracy Shield; the diatribe did not stop with the fine of over 14 million euros to the US internal services giant for violation of anti-piracy regulations. The sanction arises from failure to comply with the resolution no. 49 of 18 February 2025with which the Authority had ordered the company to disable access to various illicit contents, in application of anti-piracy law no. 93 of 2023. The one that, in fact, implemented the Piracy Shield system.
After the decision of the Italian authority, the company listed on the New York Stock Exchange challenged the sanction and relaunched its criticism of the system, claiming that Piracy Shield is a threat to the very architecture of the internet. The heart of the dispute is the functioning of the platform, which allows rights holders to report IP addresses and websites deemed responsible for the dissemination of pirated content: once the report has been received, providers must block them within 30 minutes.
According to Cloudflare, this mechanism presents some critical issues. In particular, blocking decisions would not be subject to direct judicial review. According to the company founded in 2009 in San Francisco by Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn and Lee Holloway, it is in fact private individuals who determine what should be obscured, while the providers are responsible for quickly carrying out the blocking. Additionally, Cloudflare believes that the Piracy Shield platform would not make much information about blackout requests public, much less offer a clear path to contesting them before a site is taken offline on our territory.
Global study on illegal streaming
The 2024 report by Muzzlean English company specializing in content protection, places Italy in fourteenth place in terms of the number of visits (1.68 percent) to portals offering pirated content. On the podium are the United States (14.81 percent), Russia (7.55 percent) and Ukraine (3.93 percent). By audiovisual content we mainly mean films and television programs (60.25 percent), followed by “anime”, Japanese cartoons (27.76 percent) and live sports (10.28 percent).
Our country, however, remains outside the top fifteen positions in the general ranking and in that linked to “pirated” editorial content, such as Japanese books and comics (manga). The United States (12.33 percent), India (8.12 percent) and Russia (7.12 percent) occupy the top places. In 2024, global consumption of illicit content reached 216.3 billion visits, down 5.72 percent from the previous year. The audiovisual sector continues to dominate, with television representing over 44 percent of total traffic.