The Shutting down of pirate sites is counterproductive, according to recent research carried out by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.

A research paper titled Online Copyright Enforcement, Consumer Behaviour, and Market Structure saw the data for 5,000 German internet users analysed in order to establish how their browsing habits changed following the closure of copyright infringing streaming site Kino.to.

The paper found that the site’s raid led to a brief decrease in piracy, followed by a return to normal ...