Estimating displacement rates of copyrighted content in the EU Final report

The extent to which digital consumption of pirated materials displaces
legitimate purchases is of fundamental importance for EU copyright policy
design. The European Commission has commissioned Ecorys to carry out a
study on the relation between online copyright infringement (digital piracy)
and sales of copyrighted content.
This study adds to the existing literature in at least three ways. Firstly, it
compares piracy rates in multiple EU Member States calculated according to
the same methodology. This makes it possible to compare results between
countries. Secondly, displacement rates are estimated in the presence of an
important recent phenomenon, i.e. the widespread availability of a wide
variety of services for downloading or streaming content. Thirdly, the study
includes minors to assess the extent of piracy among this group.