Pirates of the Canary Islands

Pirates of the Canary Islands Pirates are nothing new in Canary Islands waters. Over the centuries, many of them were English too, but I'll save that story for another time.

No, this story is about an altogether more 21st Century type of pirate. As this report states, it is estimated that 125,000 Canarians (roughly 6% of the population) are pirating music and movies via broadband internet connections.

According to representatives of the companies who produce music and movies, the the incidence of illegal downloads via P2P (peer to peer) platforms is on the increase and is as high, if not higher, than on the Spanish mainland.

The increase in this illicit market is evidenced also by the growth in the numbers of pirated films and CD's confiscated by the police. In 2002, they had seized 397 illegal copies of films: three years later in 2005, the number had risen to 7,718.

The number of pirated music CD's, in the same time span, rose from 219 to 10,433, although these figures are far away from the national numbers.

Downloading music and films is an offence that can carry prison sentences of 6 to 24 months, although, up to now, no end user has ever been condemned. Yet.

Unos 125.000 canarios piratean música y cine a través de la banda ancha de la Red