As reported on TNW:
Back in 2014, the European Commission paid the Dutch consulting firm Ecorys 360,000 euros (about $428,000) to research the effect piracy had on sales of copyrighted content. The final report was finished in May 2015, but for some reason it was never published– according to Julia Reda’s blog, the only Pirate in the EU Parliament.
[...]
The 300-page report seems to suggest that there’s no evidence that supports the idea that piracy has a negative effect on sales of copyrighted content (with some exceptions for recently released blockbusters). The report states:In general, the results do not show robust statistical evidence of displacement of sales by online copyright infringements. That does not necessarily mean that piracy has no effect but only that the statistical analysis does not prove with sufficient reliability that there is an effect. An exception is the displacement of recent top films. The results show a displacement rate of 40 per cent which means that for every ten recent top films watched illegally, four fewer films are consumed legally.[...]
On her blog, Julia Reda says that a report like this is fundamental to discussions about copyright policies — where the general assumption is usually that piracy has a negative effect on rightsholders’ revenues. She also criticizes the Commissions reluctance to publish the report and says it probably wouldn’t have released it for several more years if it wasn’t for the access to documents request she filed in July.
So, W3C is deep in the pockets of corporations that want to DRM the whole internet, and the EU is hiding evidence that DRM isn't necessary, presumably at the behest of these same corporations? Quelle surprise!
The hell of it is, there's not a lot that we can do about the situation. In a post-DMCA world, DRM-friendly laws, policies, and trade agreements have become the norm world wide, facts be damned. DRM hurts paying customers, while failing to stop piracy, and stopping piracy won't make these corporations any more profitable, but the EU doesn't care, and the W3C don't care, and there's just no obvious way for individual consumers to mobilize against either of them. Even the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who exist for exactly that reason, seem to have thrown in the towel, admitting that their attempts to reform this corrupt system from the inside just weren't working.
So, big corporations are going to DRM the entire internet in a bid to secure their own profits, even as it makes their customers less safe, does nothing to stop (or even slow) the actual pirates, and in spite of the fact that DRM isn't going to make them any more profitable. That is going to happen; the ground work has all been done. But when those same corporations try to tell you that they're trying to make the internet "better" in the process? That is a bald-faced lie. Don't believe a word of it.