That number would soar to 6.5 million people by 2016, ''taking into account the potential impact of the National Broadband Network''.

Piracy cost the core content industries - music, film, television, software and video games - $900 million last year. That will rise to $5.2 billion by 2016, with an estimated loss of $18 billion between 2010 and 2016.

The impact on Commonwealth revenues last year was $190 million, which will rise to $1.1 billion in five years for a total loss of $3.7 billion in five years. There were 8000 fewer jobs in the core content industries last year as a result of piracy, with the employment impact also predicted to rise dramatically by 2016.

Sabiene Heindl, of Music Industry Piracy Investigations - one of the bodies under the Australian Content Industry Group umbrella - said it appeared ''illegal conduct is largely ubiquitous now. Rather than make ethical decisions… they're simply doing it because it's easy.''

In a recent speech to a copyright law conference, federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the ACIG study highlighted the challenges facing industries affected by piracy. ''Legislative reform in this area is challenging because of the speed of technological developments,'' he said.