What is Piracy?

In the context of intellectual property rights, piracy is generally called any unauthorised use of copyright works and subject matters of protection by related rights (music, audio-visual works such as movies and serials, software, television programmes and protected live cultural and sports events).

Namely, in compliance with the internationally accepted protection system of copyrights and the related rights, authors and other rights holders of the work have, except for exceptional limited cases, an exclusive right to dispose with these works. Therefore, any use of a copyright work requires an authorisation of the right holder, or payment of the remuneration for such use. These rights can be exercised via collective management organisations for some categories of copyright works, for which it would be practically impossible to exercise an individual right.
Pirated products are copies of copyright works copied without authorisation, i.e., in legal terms, all the products made or copied without authorisation of the right holder or a person authorised by the right holder, regardless of having been made directly or indirectly from the subject matter of protection.

Today, cases of unauthorised copying and sale of physical audio and audio-visual records of works are on a decrease, such as on CDs, DVDs and other data carriers, which are almost out of use. Most infringements of copyright and related rights nowadays are being committed via the internet, e.g., by sharing databases that contain copyright contents of great scale without authorisation (peer-to-peer network), by unauthorised online offer of subject matters of protection (music, movies, software etc.) with an aim to make profit and the like.

IPTV piracy (IPTV- Internet Protocol Television) poses a substantial problem today; it involves illegal streaming of television programmes, movies and live sports events, via Internet Protocol networks, imitating legitimate IPTV services sometimes. The use of such pirated contents often requires the use of special hardware (device) or software i.e., special applications. Such services are being offered on subscription and represent an illegal form of using copyright works and subject matters of protection by related rights, causing substantial damage to rights holders. In order to combat online piracy, the European Commission adopted the Recommendation on combating online piracy of sports and other live events on 4 May 2023.

Users are pointed to the need to use legal sources of copyright works and subject matters of protection by related rights (music, movies, software, television programmes and other subject matters of protection).