Digital Citizens Alliance - a group backed by rights holders, have concluded that the generated income from advertising on Piracy related sites could top $237 Million dollars each year. Even some of the smaller sites that provide this type of content could be making hundreds of thousands each year.
Most companies used advertising companies to enable them to get their adverts on hundreds of sites all at one time, but under new rules the Infringing Website List (IWL) will keep an up to date list of all copyright infringing websites that can be checked by the companies, in the hope that they will not put adverts on those sites.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fyfe from the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (Pipcu) said to the BBC, an advert appearing on a Pirate website gives the site a legitimate look, not only does this make the site look more attractive but the Advertising company are in fact funding online crime. The IWL also serves as a safety tool, to make sure that the advertising company and the brand company are not being associated with illegal websites.
Ernesto Van Der Sar from of Torrentfreak said, "As long as there is money to be made, there will be plenty of advertising companies who are happy to work with these sites."
Source: BBC | Image courtesy of Mando Gomez (aka Mandolux) via Flickr
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