It has long been said that imitation is the highest form of flattery. The rapid development of technology, shortening the production chains and product life cycle, new distribution models developed by the world’s largest corporations, the progressive shift of retail trade to the web, changes in consumer habits and the ever-increasing dominance of large internet platforms, meant that this sentence should now read: copying is the simplest form of theft. Radosław Krzycki , COO Skey Network According to one of the best current studies of this type, the OECD report on world trade and counterfeit goods, in 2019 the share of counterfeit products in global trade was 3.3% and was growing rapidly. In the European Union itself, the share of counterfeit goods was even higher and accounted for 6.8% of imports. Importantly, this number does not include counterfeits produced within the EU countries and their distribution via the Internet (so in reality it is probably much higher). According to the estimates of the ICC – the International Chamber of Commerce, the value of the trade in counterfeit products will increase to almost one trillion dollars in 2022, and the number of jobs lost will be between 4.2 and 5.4 million. More difficult to estimate is the size of counterfeit digital goods, which increases in direct proportion to the traffic and importance of the global network. In 2022, piracy of music, movies, series and software...
