Pirates do not only exist in legends or on the seas. They also exist in the digital world, looking to steal content and share it with others. While in the past, pirated material was not too accessible—let alone safe—today, it becomes almost a norm! It comes in any form, from access to television content to office software, and can be found virtually anywhere, meaning that businesses trying to fight digital piracy have a lot in their hands to deal with!
If you’re losing quite a bit of money due to digital piracy, then there are a few countermeasures you can take to avoid it. Here are some of the most basic and effective ways to address the issue:
1. Educate your audience
Because pirating has become such a norm, not many realise it is an illegal thing to do. For that reason, one of the most important and effective steps to protect your business from digital piracy is to educate the audience all about it.
There are many ways to approach this effort. For example, if you are hosting a TV show, you can dedicate some time reminding users that piracy is a mistake that can lead to severe consequences. Through this, you can show the risks they put themselves in, such as the risk of downloading malware and viruses, along with the legal problems they will face if caught pirating.
2. Use anti-piracy services
There are various anti-piracy services out there you can use to fight digital piracy. These services usually aim at disrupting the access to the content, even removing it entirely. Some services can even go down as far as identifying precisely who is pirating the content!
What action is taken next will generally be up to you. It can include offering them access to legitimate content with a promotion, or, using this information and giving it to law enforcement for more harsh solutions.
In many cases, you will want to avoid the latter, as it uses up a lot of time and effort. The best way is to delete the content from the internet first and incentivise your audience to opt for legal content!
3. Make it easy to access legal content
Speaking of legal content, one hurdle motivating people to opt for pirated content is that the content you may be offering is hard to access. For instance, it can be a geographical issue, where your content may be restricted to only certain areas in the world.
Of course, geography is not the only factor here. There are many other factors, such as price, internet speed, and other external factors that can cause a user to opt for pirated content over legal content, and vice versa. Regardless of what you do, make it as easy as possible for your audience to get the content they want—that way, they have less reason to consume without pirating it!
Understand that combating piracy is not easy. In fact, it might just be impossible to counter it fully! However, piracy leads to heavy losses on your end—so it is still worth your time and effort to ensure piracy happens at a minimum.
Follow the tips we have shared above to ensure that your audience relies less on pirated content and more on you, who is offering the content legally. If you are having too much trouble doing this, reach out to anti-piracy services. They have the tools and expertise you need to combat piracy, and they will take care of the problem for you while you can focus on growing your business.
FraudWatch International is a cybersecurity company protecting brands worldwide from social media impersonation, malware, phishing, and more. If you are looking for a brand protection company, work with us today!