2005 Commercial Piracy Report
Key Figures Summary

The scale of the damage:

• Last year illegal pirate music was worth US$4.6 billion globally (1.5 billion units), the equivalent in size to the entire legal markets of the UK, Netherlands and Spain combined.
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• In 31 countries fake recordings outsell legal copies.
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• Copyright industries represent 5% of the GDP of the US and European economies.
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• The entertainment and media sectors are worth around 1 trillion US dollars globally (PWC)

Commercial piracy, mainly of physical discs remains a critical problem:

• 34% of all discs are illegal (1/3 discs sold worldwide are pirate).
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• Although disc piracy only grew 2% in 2004 to 1.2 billion units, pirate sales are at almost double the level that they were in 2000.
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• Disc overcapacity remains a major issue for the industry, with capacity exceeding demand by 13 times in the top 11 over-capacity nations.
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• CD-R piracy has increased by 6% to 560 million units, spurred by growth in Latin America which accounts for almost half of all global pirate CD-R sales.
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• Disc plant piracy on the other hand dropped 4% to 575 million units, helped by a slight fall in China, which remains the world's largest pirate market.
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• Pirate cassettes fell by 28% to 390 million in 2004, with CDs continuing to replace cassettes.
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• DVD music piracy figures have been included for the first time in the report. At least 20 million pirate DVD videos were sold in 2004. This is the music industry's primary growth format which accounts for 8% of global music sales.

2004 anti-piracy successes:

• 87 disc manufacturing lines were taken out of operation (67 in 2003)
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• 28,350 CD burners were seized (twice the number in 2003)
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• 71 million blank CDs were seized (this number is indicative of the quantity of recorded discs pirate syndicates plan to produce)
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• All format seizures totalled 45 million
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• Over 12,000 arrests made which involved pirate music

Top 10 priority counties:

• Brazil: with a piracy level of 52%, pirate sales outweigh legitimate unit sales, crippling this important market. There have been encouraging actions by the government in 2004
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• China: the world's largest pirate market, with a piracy level of 85%. Absence of political will and government coordination has prevented effective progress in the fight against piracy.
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• India: has a piracy level of 56% and is in the top ten priority countries for the first time due to a large increase in commercial internet piracy and CD-R burning. Long court procedures mean pirates often go free.
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• Indonesia: piracy has steadily increased over the past few years to a level of 80%. Indonesia has at least 15 optical disc plants where control is urgently needed as the pirate product is often exported.
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• Mexico: has a 60% piracy level which has devastated one of the world's most important music markets. However, enforcement has improved in 2004, especially in Guadalajara.
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• Pakistan: has a piracy level of 59% and is one of the world's largest exporters of pirate discs, with at least 230 million pirate discs estimated to have been exported in 2004.
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• Paraguay: has a piracy level of 99%, being a major transit point for blank discs which fuel piracy across Latin America. The government stepped up enforcement in 2004.
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• Russia: has a piracy level of 66%, exports pirate discs to at least 34 countries and is the second largest piracy market in the world.
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• Spain: with a piracy level of 24%, is the biggest pirate unit market in Europe. What was one of the world's biggest legitimate markets has shrunk 32% in the past five years.
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• Ukraine: maintains a piracy level of 68% despite trade sanctions and international pressure on government.