Understanding what motivates people to access content by illegitimate means is critical to developing effective programs to manage piracy and ultimately converting some of the “pirates” into paying consumers.

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Piracy is not a single behavior. Most people think of a pirate as a malicious, ill-intentioned individual. In today’s evolving digital ecosystem, that’s simply not the case anymore. Irdeto’s proprietary Piracy Continuum framework accurately describes the mechanics of the market and provides Irdeto customers with a corporate governance perspective on the market, enabling them to better manage threats and capture opportunities. The continuum expresses the variety of “pirate types”. Each one, in many ways, has intent to capture content but each has very different motivations.

There are two categories that make up the six groups The Piracy Continuum:

Offenders – “I’m going to get access to it whether you want me to or not”

Criminals - "I make money on your content"
Hackers - "Let’s see how fast I can crack the security"
Casual Pirates - "I’m only doing this once in a while... who’s it going to hurt?"

Intenders - "If you make it available, I’ll pay for it"

Frustrated Consumers - "I want to buy it but it’s not available"
Confused Consumers -"It’s legitimate... isn’t it?"
Consumers - "I’m happy with the content I already pay for or get for free."

Download the Piracy Continuum white paper to learn how to distinguish between the different categories of pirates, understand consumer drivers for piracy, and what opportunities are available to successfully turn pirates into paying customers.

Read how Irdeto Intelligence lets you manage piracy effectively and gain valuable consumer insight across all modes of Internet media distribution.

The Piracy Continuum™