Digital piracy in times of Covid-19

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.