The Internet comes with many positives and many negatives, the latter especially for entertainment industries. If you thought only Japan or South Korea were the countries that had the highest rate of movie piracies, then think again.

More than 50% of internet users in South Korea commit movie “piracies” by downloading them off of hundreds of websites that hosts files for movies, dramas, shows, games and even software. Spain is no different, the Paris-based consultancy ‘TERA’ reported that Spain had the highest piracy rate in Europe which will have significant, negative impacts on its economy and of course on the other members in the European Union.

With the absence of a firm and absolute law on internet piracy, Spain’s internet users have effectively whacked the the entertainment industry to the point where more than 900 million euros (1.2 billion U.S dollars) were lost in 2008 and causes nearly 14,000 actors, musicians, studio staff and so forth to lose their jobs every year because of the rapidly increasing rate of piracy in Spain.

Due to these losses, foreign entertainment studios have threathened to withdraw from the Spanish entertainment market. DVD sales and rentals continuously go downhill as internet users in Spain start to stop going to these stores which of course ruins the businesses of both video and DVD stores. More than 2 billion illegal downloads of movies, games, music, and copyrighted products surfaced in Spain.

If the industry does withdraw from Spain then Spain, currently the EU president, will be the first ever European country to have overseas film and art industries withdraw from its entertainment market. The Spanish government has a difficult path to follow if they do intend to protect the businesses from internet “piracy” for plainly obvious reasons. The problem with this whole situation is that Spain like South Korea and a few other countries haven’t put their foot down on the grounds of internet piracy, of what is illegal and should be shunned. Unfortunately the lack of enforcing or even making such laws has led to these kinds of situations where it makes it more difficult for countries to dig themselves out of.

The EU and the TERA Consultants for the International Chamber of Commerce predicts that at the current rate internet piracy is becoming more present, perhaps almost one million jobs and 250 billion euros could be lost by the year 2015. Without consuming, consumers cannot consume in the market.

(Cover Picture: Bill Frymire)