Two decades ago, piracy meant buying a bootleg DVD from a vendor or copying music onto a blank CD. Today, the illicit business has largely disappeared from the streets and moved online.

A football match that normally requires a paid subscription can be streamed for free on an anonymous website.

The latest blockbuster movie appears on a Telegram channel hours after its release while software, books and music are downloaded with clicks, often without users giving much thought to how the content got there.

In the 2000s and early 2010s, piracy revolved around CDs and DVDs, as commercial bootleggers – illegal content makers, distributors or sellers – duplicated discs while consumers copied music and movies from one CD-R to another.

This relied on street vendors, cyber cafés and informal retail outlets before piracy became entirely digital, thanks to high-speed broadband, cloud computing and peer-to-peer technology.

Platforms like BitTorrent have made downloading a file from a single server unnecessary, as internet users can easily receive small fragments of files simultaneously from multiple computers while uploading pieces to others. This makes the network faster and more difficult to shut down.

The adoption of cloud storage platforms and online file-hosting services has made distribution easier, allowing one link to provide global access to copyrighted movies, software or books.

Virtual private networks and proxy servers complicate enforcement by masking users' locations and helping them bypass geographical restrictions imposed by legitimate streaming services.

This has resulted in a complex piracy ecosystem that is harder to contain. In Kenya, premium TV broadcasters, streaming platforms, publishers, musicians, filmmakers and software developers are feeling the effects as consumers access copyrighted content without paying.

Illegal streaming of live sports has become a headache for pay-TV companies. Premium sports channels, including MultiChoice's SuperSport, are rebroadcast through unauthorised internet TV services and illegal streaming websites, eroding subscription revenues.

MultiChoice estimates there were 17.4 million visits to the top 10 piracy websites across Africa last year alone. Kenya accounted for seven million, the highest on the continent, followed by South Africa with five million and Ghana with 2.4 million.

Last week, the Ministry of ICT said digital piracy costs Kenya about Sh92 billion every year – equivalent to around Sh252 million daily – while denying the Exchequer Sh17 billion annually in tax revenue.

“Tackling it decisively could create or sustain more than 50,000 jobs in our creative and technology sectors,” said ICT Cabinet Secretary William Kabogo.

Analysts say several factors have fuelled the growth of digital piracy, including high-speed internet and the post-pandemic surge in online streaming.

Outdated legal frameworks have struggled to keep pace with rapidly evolving technology. In Kenya, copyright disputes can take up to years in court before claimants obtain orders for ISPs to block illegal movie and sports streaming sites. Only recently was a proposed law tabled seeking to allow copyright holders to obtain the orders within 72 hours. Experts also point to public perception that piracy is a victimless crime.

Globally, rights holders estimate that nearly half of online viewers watching UEFA Champions League matches do so through pirated streams. MultiChoice estimates the English Premier League loses around £1 million (Sh174 million) per match to illegal broadcasting.

“Behind every broadcast are thousands of professionals. Broadcasters invest heavily in acquiring rights, deploying production teams and infrastructure. When that content is stolen, it weakens the commercial model,” MultiChoice Kenya Head of Operations Support, Leonard Agufa said recently.

As digital content moves online, analysts say the challenge for creators, tech companies and regulators is to ensure the tools meant to safeguard it keep up with the technology being used to steal it.

→ jdmusau@ke.nationmedia.com

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