From my discussions at MWC Barcelona this year, one concern came through very clearly: the rising cost of hardware and memory, combined with longer lead times to secure them. Piracy is no longer just a revenue problem; it is becoming an infrastructure cost issue too.
When piracy drives CDN leeching, operators are not only losing value on the content side. They are also paying to deliver traffic that should never be on their infrastructure in the first place. And that matters more now than it did a few years ago.
Recent market data shows why. Omdia noted in March 2026 that memory and storage prices had risen by at least 60% in Q1 2026, while TrendForce raised its 1Q26 conventional DRAM contract-price forecast to 90 to 95% quarter over quarter and NAND Flash to 55 to 60%. In other words, the cost base behind infrastructure expansion is moving up fast.
Field measurements show us that piracy can increase CDN demand by 30%. This is no longer a small inefficiency that can be hidden under the rug. In addition, the longer lead times for hardware might directly impact service needs and business opportunities.
What used to look like “just extra traffic” can now mean earlier cache expansion, more memory, more storage, and more pressure to add capacity for demand that creates no legitimate return. For this reason, the industry should move the conversation upstream.
If we only react once pirate traffic is already hitting the CDN, then part of the damage is already done. The smarter play is to stop the abuse before it becomes an infrastructure load.
That is where preventive approaches matter. Targeted solutions like Counterspy are essential because they help identify and disrupt abuse patterns earlier, before CDN leeching turns into scaling costs, platform strain, and unnecessary infrastructure investment.
The cloud changes the shape of the problem, but not the problem itself. Instead of immediate hardware capex, the impact may show up as higher usage, more scaling, and larger infrastructure commitments. And even there, capacity is tightening. CBRE expects European data-center vacancy to fall to a record-low 6.5% by the end of 2026. In other words, “the cloud” is not infinite, and available capacity is becoming harder to find.
I see this as the turning point. Anti-piracy is not only about protecting revenue.
It is also about protecting infrastructure efficiency.
And in a market where hardware, memory, and capacity are all becoming more expensive, stopping piracy earlier is not just good security. It is good economics.
