The growth of illegal file-sharing could cost the European economy 1.2 million jobs and €240 billion in lost income by 2015, a major report says.

The shocking claim comes in a report prepared by TERA Consultants for the International Chamber Of Commerce on the impact of ever rising online piracy on the European creative industries.

The report reckons Europe's creative sector lost €1.4 billion in 2008 alone because of people stealing content online, though it's possible that's based on multiplying the number of digital files illegally downloading by their wholesale unit price, which is never an overly useful measure.

Brendan Barber, the General Secretary of the UK's TUC, who endorsed the research, said the study further proved why politicians should back the Digital Economy Bill and it's three-strikes provisions, which media analysts say will have minimal effect.

Barber said:

"These results show piracy is a major threat to the creative industries in terms of loss of employment and revenues. If there was ever the proof needed to demonstrate why the Digital Economy Bill is imperative for the protection of our creative industries, this report is it".

€240 billion loss would devastate creative pool

The report takes data from EU governments, the World Intellectual Property Organisation and the EU's own stats and processes that information in such a way to reach the conclusion that by 2015 1.2 million jobs and €240 billion will be lost within the Union's creative industries.

File-sharing has, in part, led to declining revenues in those parts of the creative industries - and certainly the music industry - that traditionally provided the most artist investment and some of the best creative job prospects, both of which have been negatively affected as a result.

Three strikes impact

Arguably the potential impact of struggling intellectual property businesses on the jobs market is a stronger argument for things like the Digital Economy Bill than the declining profits of the multi-national content firms, which is why the union movement are backing this report and using it to justify their support of three-strikes and the like.

That Jim Killock from the Open Rights Group, who opposes the DEB, yesterday criticised the Labour movement for backing a report that supports three-strikes, telling The Guardian:

"We have no truck with infringement of copyright, but it is shameful that anyone from the Labour movement can attempt to justify removal of vital services such as the internet as a punishment. Members of the Labour movement spent decades fighting for people's rights to basic services, education, and political organisation: they need to ask themselves where their true values lie".

Many of those unions backing the ICC report called of the European Parliament to take action to help curb online piracy. Of course, as previously reported, most efforts on the file-sharing front amongst the European political community have been attempts to stop member states from introducing three-strike-style systems based on arguments like those employed by Killock. Though those attempts have, in the main, been unsuccessful.

The new report was published as the Digital Economy Bill, passed by the House Of Lords on Monday of course, formally arrived at the House Of Commons for its first reading. The second reading in the Commons is expected to take place on 29 Mar, after which the proposed legislation will head into what is likely to be a very rushed committee stage.

Additional reporting by CMU Network