For the year 2022, MUSO, which claims the most comprehensive data on piracy, estimates the number of visits to illegal sites at 215 billion, and its analyses show an increase in piracy of 18% between 2021 and 2022, for a selection of 480,000 films and TV series.

The restrictive measures taken by the authorities are not enough to discourage people seeking this illegal content, especially since it remains easily accessible.

It only takes a few minutes to Google a list of illegal streaming sites and access the latest episodes of the hit series "Succession" or "White Lotus", without registration or payment.

On the discussion site Reddit, a forum with nearly 1.2 million users lists pirate streaming and download sites. Every conceivable excuse is used to justify the use of these illegal sites.

One factor often comes up: the explosion in the number of streaming platforms (Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, HBO ...), whose subscriptions are increasingly expensive.

"I used to pay one or two, but now there are 50 and everything in the world is getting more and more expensive almost every day. So, I went back to hacking," Jaydra explains.

Others are disarmingly frank: "I have no excuse. I could afford to pay for everything if I wanted but, instead of giving my money to the CEO of a media company who earns a thousand times more than me, I'd rather save that money for my own retirement," writes ScarecrowJohnny, another Reddit user.

'A lot of progress'

Faced with this phenomenon, the entertainment industry is not giving up.

It acknowledges that massive fines imposed on individuals for downloading a few films have been counterproductive, making them look like tyrannical undertakings, while court decisions to block pirate sites were often a waste of time.

Today, it focuses on the big fish, "the people who buy +supercars+ (sports cars, editor's note) with the millions they earn on piracy sites," in the words of Stan McCoy, of the Motion Picture Association, which represents the interests of Hollywood studios.

On the discussion site Reddit, a forum with nearly 1.2 million users lists pirate streaming and download © sites Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP / Archives

This association launched the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), established in 2017 to coordinate anti-piracy efforts globally.

Since the beginning of the year, ACE's action has led to the closure of pirate sites in Spain, Brazil, Germany, Vietnam, Egypt and Tunisia, each with millions of monthly users.

Since eliminating piracy is not realistic, perhaps the most important goal is to ensure that it does not become commonplace.

"We've made a lot of progress in making hacking less easy," McCoy said. "If people are determined to break the law, they will. But it has to be a marginal phenomenon, not a mass phenomenon."

Paradoxically, streaming platforms can benefit from piracy monitoring, for example by using data produced by MUSO to measure the success of movies and TV series.

"We have customers who look at what's popular on pirate sites and buy it for their platform," says Chatterley, CEO of MUSO.

© 2023 AFP