Illegal downloading wiping out jobs

Brussels: A study by Paris based consultancy showed that 1.2 million jobs in the European Union could be lost over the next five years if some action is not taken on illegal downloading. The study by TERA Consultants for the International Chamber of Commerce focused on piracy in Europe's music, film, television and software industries, according to Reuters.

Those industries generated 860 billion euros ($1.186 trillion) and employed 14.4 million people in 2008. But in the same year, 10 billion euros and 186,000 jobs were lost to piracy, the study found. If this trend continues then up to 1.2 million jobs and 240 billion euros worth of European commerce could be wiped out by 2015.

"In the near future and even today in 2010, we observe increasing bandwidth, increasing penetration rate in terms of the Internet. If we combine all those elements, obviously the impact in a few years won't remain stable compared to what it was in 2008," said TERA Consultant's Patrice Geoffron.

Agnete Haaland, the President of the International Actors' Federation, believes consumers need to be made more aware of the damaging economic and social impact of their illegal activity. "We should change the word piracy. To me, piracy is something adventurous, it makes you think about Johnny Depp. We all want to be a bit like Johnny Depp. But we're talking about a criminal act. We're talking about making it impossible to make a living from what you do," she said.