Digital Piracy Has Outgrown Old Policy Assumptions

Digital piracy has long been treated as a copyright problem. That framing is now too narrow.

The illegal streaming site, counterfeit online pharmacy, spoofed bank email, and piracy box sitting inside a home network may look like separate problems. In practice, they are increasingly connected by the same criminal logic: exploit trusted brands, lure consumers with convenience or savings, abuse digital infrastructure, and turn stolen attention into revenue, data, and access.

That is why the policy conversation around piracy must catch up. The question before policymakers is no longer whether piracy harms creators and rights holders. Decades of proof already exist. The more urgent question is whether our enforcement tools, legal frameworks, and public-private partnerships are built for a world where piracy functions as an entry point for fraud, malware, organized crime, and foreign actors.

As Jonathan Burks, Senior Vice President for Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, put it: “Intellectual property is one of America's greatest competitive advantages. Copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets fuel innovation, support millions of jobs, and enable businesses of every size to compete and to grow.”

Digital Piracy Threat Has Evolved

Protecting that advantage requires recognizing the full ecosystem at stake. When digital theft becomes easier, faster, and more sophisticated, the costs do not stop with the company whose content, brand, or product is stolen. Consumers are exposed to fraud. Small businesses face impersonation and reputational harm. Legitimate markets lose trust. Criminal networks gain resources.

Tom Galvin, Executive Director of the Digital Citizens Alliance, described the shift plainly: “[Digital] piracy has spread from a known harm to creators to a growing harm to consumers and small businesses to a tool for state actors and terrorists to leverage to their own ends.”

That evolution should change how piracy is addressed. A site offering stolen entertainment may also be a malware delivery system. A spoofed bank communication may be part of a broader brand abuse strategy. A counterfeit medicine site may be targeting vulnerable patients directly. These are not isolated violations occurring at the margins of the internet. They are business models built around deception, scale, and weak points in enforcement.

Criminals Move Fast. Breaking Down Silos Needed.

Across sectors, the pattern is familiar. Criminals adapt quickly. They reuse infrastructure. They move across platforms. They take advantage of fragmented information and slow coordination. That is why a narrow, siloed response will always lag behind the threat.

Fabrico Vayra, Partner at Morgan Lewis, captured the collaboration gap: “We're all facing the same problems, usually dealing with the same infrastructure or the same sort of nexus, and we're not talking about it, or we're not collaborating or sharing information in a way that's helpful to each other.”

Digital crime does not respect industry boundaries, so enforcement strategy cannot be confined by them. Financial institutions, telecommunications providers, pharmaceutical companies, content creators, technology platforms, and law enforcement agencies often see different sides of the same criminal enterprise. Better information sharing, stronger relationships with investigators, and more consistent cross-sector coordination can help turn scattered signals into actionable intelligence.

Law Enforcement Is Expanding the Lens

The same is true for government. Enforcement agencies are increasingly looking at piracy through a broader lens, including cybercrime, fraud, infrastructure disruption, and transnational criminal activity. That matters because a digital piracy operation may be difficult to prosecute through one channel but vulnerable through another. The goal should be to bring every lawful tool to bear.

Anand Patel, Senior Counsel in the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section at the U.S. Department of Justice, explained how the economics of these schemes can overlap: “Digital pirates are either trying to get pure ad revenue, or they're trying to have some ad revenue, but also get some money from the cyber actors as well, so they get a cut of everyone who gets hacked through the cyber scheme.”

That reality demands policy tools that can disrupt the infrastructure supporting digital crime, rather than merely punishing bad actors after consumers and businesses have already been harmed. Patel also emphasized the importance of international cooperation and operational disruption: “We’re trying to work more closely with our foreign law enforcement partners… If we can’t get the people themselves, just disrupt the infrastructure.”

This is where strong public-private partnerships become essential. Companies often see the threat first. Law enforcement has authorities and capabilities businesses do not. Policymakers can help ensure that the legal framework supports timely action, effective coordination, and meaningful consequences.

Ryan DiAndrea of Homeland Security Investigations noted that agents are already shifting their approach: “Agents in the field are really starting to think about digital piracy in different mindsets and how to approach these from other ways.”

A Modern Playbook for a Modern Threat

That mindset shift should guide the broader policy agenda. Digital piracy is no longer a side issue in the innovation economy. It is a test of whether the United States can protect the ideas, brands, products, and trusted digital channels that allow businesses to compete and consumers to participate safely online.

The answer is not a single enforcement action or one new tool. It is a modern anti-piracy playbook built around collaboration, disruption, accountability, and speed. If intellectual property is one of America’s greatest competitive advantages, defending it must be treated as a core economic and security priority.

About the author

Jaci McDole

Jaci McDole is Executive Director of Copyright and Creativity for the Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

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