Digital piracy in times of Covid-19

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the consumption patterns of cultural goods. Using novel data from a consumer survey conducted in January 2022 across 14 countries, we address two key issues. First, we provide a descriptive analysis of changes in the consumption of four cultural goods—music, films and series, games, and books—focusing on shifts between legal and illegal consumption. Second, we reassess the relationship between digital piracy and legal sales, with a particular emphasis on age differences. Our findings reveal that among those who engaged in illegal consumption during the pandemic, 6–8% were new pirates, primarily individuals who experienced income reductions and increased time at home due to the shift to remote work or schooling. Among adults, these disruptions were linked to a decline in legal sales of music and games. In contrast, the displacement of legal audiovisual consumption was observed only among adults who continued working in person. Minors displayed different patterns: for them, illegal consumption was negatively associated with legal book consumption but positively linked to legal audiovisual consumption.