Ebooks are unfamiliar waters for digital pirates, according to UK survey

Publishing sector has the lowest level of illegal downloads in the entertainment industry, with book piracy at half the rate of copyright theft in film and music

For publishers, fresh from winning a landmark ruling forcing internet service providers to block illegal ebook download sites in Russia and the US, pirates are the enemy. Author Paulo Coelho believes that "the more people 'pirate' a book, the better". But research commissioned by the government shows that that the literary world has the lowest level of illegal downloads in the entertainment industry.

Just 1% of UK internet users aged 12 and over read "at least some" ebooks illegally between March and May 2015, according to the Intellectual Property Office's study into the extent of online copyright infringement in the UK. This compares favourably to other forms of entertainment, with 9% accessing some of their music illegally, 7% television programmes, 6% films, and 2% computer software and video games.