Measuring the Effect of Piracy Website Blocking in Australia on Consumer Behavior: December 2018

Summary

Website domain blocking (“site blocking”) is one of a number of methods currently being used in dozens of countries to counter online piracy by targeting sites that providing infringing content. Following the methodology of Danaher et al. (2019), this study utilizes a unique, individual-level panel dataset to measure the impact of the December 20, 2018 site blocking wave in Australia on both pirate and legal viewing behavior. The results point to the general effectiveness of site blocking in the country. The December 2018 site blocking wave in Australia reached a substantial portion of Australian online film and video consumers and represented a significant portion of total piracy traffic for those consumers. For users of sites targeted for blocking, traffic to legal content viewing sites increased by 5% in the post-period following the blocking.

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