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New Ipsos research carried out on behalf of Italian anti-piracy group FAPAV reveals that 43% of the adult population engaged in some type of audiovisual piracy in 2021, with almost a quarter using pirate IPTV. Despite the gloom, overall piracy volumes are down 53% on figures reported in 2016 but FAPAV says that Italy needs to do much better.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
For the past several years market research company Ipsos has carried out an annual study on behalf of leading Italian anti-piracy group FAPAV.
The goals of the research are to estimate the number of adults engaged in online audiovisual piracy, the type of content they consume, the methods used, plus an estimate of the overall number of infringing acts.
The headlines for 2021 are mixed. Last year saw an overall increase in the number of citizens obtaining content from pirate sources, but that appears to have been more than offset by a significant reduction in the overall volume of piracy actually carried out.
Considering the increasing number of legal alternatives available today, Italian rightsholders may be a little disheartened to learn that 43% of the population engaged in some kind of audiovisual piracy in 2021. That’s up from 37% in 2019 before the disruption of the pandemic.
The breakdown in the Ipsos report relates to adults but among Italy’s 10 to 14-year-olds, piracy rates in 2021 are even higher at 51%, up from a low of 39% in 2018.
Movies remain the most illicitly consumed content among adults with a 29% incidence in 2021, down from 31% in 2019 and 33% in 2018. Consumption of TV series increased slightly last year to 24%, following the trend set by 2019 (23%) and 2018 (21%).
Consumption of live sports among adults in 2019 was relatively modest at 10%, but in 2021, that figure jumped by half to around 15%.
Audiovisual content can be viewed illegally using streaming sites or peer-to-peer protocols such as BitTorrent but these methods are on a downward trend, especially when compared to pirate IPTV services. Despite massive enforcement measures including multiple raids, shutdowns, ISP blocking, and fines for both operators and end-users, Italians can’t get enough of their ‘pezzotto’ devices.
In 2019, adults watching sport, movies, and live TV via IPTV devices sat at 10% of the population. In 2021, that figure more than doubled to 23%, representing around 11.7 million people in total.
The Ipsos study also attempts to quantify instances of password sharing, where subscribers to legitimate services allow others to access their accounts on Netflix, for example. Those who view without paying are considered pirates for the purposes of the study and in 2021, 41% of adults are said to have viewed content this way.
While increasing numbers of both adults and younger people engaging in piracy isn’t exactly ideal for rightsholders, perhaps the most important figures relate to the overall consumption of pirated content.
For 2021, Ipsos estimates the overall number of infringing acts to be around 315 million. This may sound like a lot but when compared with previous years, it’s clear that progress is being made.
In 2019, Italian adults were responsible for 414 million infringements and in 2018, the figure was 578 million. When compared to levels in 2016, overall infringement in Italy during 2021 showed a decrease of 53%. Of course, rightsholders are still unhappy with current levels.
According to anti-piracy group FAPAV, the use of illegal movie and TV sources among Italians may have cost the industry 673 million euros in 2021, with a 267 million euro turnover loss attributable to live sports due to pirate IPTV use. Just last month, the CEO of Serie A claimed that football alone loses 300 million a year to IPTV piracy.
FAPAV estimates a cost of over 1.7 billion euros to all Italian economic sectors due to movie, TV show and live sports piracy, a potential risk to 9,400 jobs, and an estimated impact of 716 million euros on Italy’s GDP. Italy’s government tax collectors, meanwhile, are estimated to have lost 319 million euros in VAT, income, and corporation tax.
Whether these trends will continue will remain to be seen but according to Ipsos, Italians are increasingly aware of the issues. In 2019, just 28% of pirates were aware of the “seriousness of their behavior” but in 2021, that had increased to 50%.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Dealmaster picks out the best of Steam’s mega-sale. Plus, deals on storage and Apple Watches.
Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)
It's the weekend, which means the time has come for another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best tech deals from around the web is particularly heavy on video games, as Steam's annual Summer Sale kicked off earlier this week. The PC gaming storefront's latest mega-sale runs until July 7 and, as is often the case, includes thousands of discounts on games that span across genres and eras.
There's a good chance you're already sitting on an unwieldy backlog of games you've picked up from past sales, but if you're still looking for something new to play, we've dug through the avalanche of offers to curate a list of the best genuine discounts we think the Summer Sale is running. We've laid out more than 60 deals on Ars favorites below, and while not every pick is at the absolute lowest price we've tracked, all of them are going for notably less than the street prices we've seen from the major storefronts over the past several months. (And for any games not on our list, price-tracking tools like IsThereAnyDeal are useful for ensuring that the "bargain" you're eyeing is actually a bargain.) If you prefer not to use Steam, we've also noted other PC game stores where these prices are available.
The highlights include past Ars Game of the Year winners like Hades (down to $15), Celeste ($5), and Psychonauts 2 ($30), plus well-reviewed 2022 games like the meta comedy The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe ($17) and the breezy LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga ($37). Many of the lesser-publicized gems we've highlighted during past Summer Sales are deeply discounted once again, while bigger-name hits like the co-op adventure It Takes Two ($16) and the tense VR shooter Half-Life Alyx ($30) are back down to the best prices we've seen on PC. Steam sales are often a good time to grab some older titles that still hold up as well, and this time, classics like the roguelite Spelunky ($1.49), the co-op puzzler Portal 2 ($2), and the bonkers hack-and-slasher Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance ($7), among others, are all down to single-digit prices. Valve has a bundle that includes more than 20 of its own hits available for $13, too.
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Marco Bülow sagt: Wir werden nur noch von oben beschallt, in Parteien und von Medien. Mit psychologischen Tricks werden Krisenlösungen blockiert. Gibt es Auswege aus der Post-Politik? (Teil 3)
The discovery greatly expands the scope of known microbial diversity.
Enlarge / The bacteria, Ca. Thiomargarita magnifica, discovered in the French Caribbean mangroves is a member of the genus Thiomargarita. (credit: Tomas Tyml)
Clinging to sunken debris in shallow, marine mangrove forests in the French Caribbean, tiny thread-like organisms—perfectly visible to the naked eye—have earned the title of the largest bacteria ever known.
Measuring around a centimeter long, they are roughly the size and shape of a human eyelash, batting away the competition at 5,000 times the size of garden-variety bacteria and 50 times the size of bacteria previously considered giant. In human terms, this is akin to coming across a person as tall as Mount Everest.
Views of the sampling sites among the mangroves of Guadeloupe archipelago in the French Caribbean, April-May 2022. (credit: Pierre Yves Pascal)
Olivier Gros, a biologist at the University of the Antilles, discovered the prokaryotes in 2009, noticing them gently swaying in the sulfur-rich waters among the mangroves in the Guadeloupe archipelago. The bacteria clung to the leaves, branches, oyster shells, and bottles that sunk into the tropical swamp, Gros said in a press briefing.
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Ukraine-Krieg und Medien: Der US-Publizist und Präsidenten-Berater Walter Lippmann erlebt derzeit eine vielleicht allzu wohlmeinende Renaissance. Noam Chomsky sieht ihn als Paten der modernen Propaganda.
A brief breakdown of the display tech behind TVs, monitors, and laptops.
Enlarge / Magnifying the differences, similarities, pros, and cons. (credit: Aurich Lawson)
Somewhere along the line, consumer display technology became an alphabet soup full of terms using the letters "LED."
In this succinct guide, we'll provide a brief overview of common initialisms found in the world of TV, PC monitor, and laptop displays. To keep things simple, we'll focus on how each technology impacts expected image quality. Whether you're looking for a handy refresher for the next time you're shopping or a quick, digestible guide to give to inquisitive friends and family, we've got you covered.
You're likely reading this article on a liquid crystal display (LCD). "LCD" refers to any display type that uses liquid crystals, including TN, IPS, and VA (which we'll get into shortly). Even an old-school calculator or digital watch can use an LCD. But a simple "LCD" designation doesn't tell you how a screen will perform. You need more information, like the backlight type the panel uses—usually LED, followed by the more expensive Mini LED.
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Die Tasche mit dem USB-Stick wurde über in ihr ebenfalls enthaltene Smartphone geortet und gefunden. (Security, Datenschutz)
Die Tasche mit dem USB-Stick wurde über in ihr ebenfalls enthaltene Smartphone geortet und gefunden. (Security, Datenschutz) 
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