contentsecurity2209v2_cs 25/09/2015 17:32 Page 7
Advertising profits
fuel pirate websites
indings from online rights
protection firm Incopro indicate
that 88% of the most popular
websites used to obtain infringing
copyright content use advertising as a
key source of funding. The report –
Revenue sources for websites making
available copyright content without
consent in the EU – analysed the top
250 websites used in each of the five key
European Union countries (France,
Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK) to
obtain infringing content.
The largest proportion of advertising on the
sites (31.5%) was categorised as ‘Trick Button’
and malware adverts. ‘Trick Button’ or malware
adverts typically do not mention the advertiser
in the initial ad. Instead, these adverts trick
users into downloading potentially unwanted
programmes or accessing harmful links.
Adverts for adult
content sites and
services accounted for
10.4% of all
advertising.
According to
Simon Baggs,
managing director,
Incopro Limited,
advertising revenues provide an economic
incentive for websites in the infringing
ecosystem. “Often, the ‘advertising’ will cause
harm to a user’s computer or take the form of
promoting goods and services that are
harmful, for example adverts for unrestricted
F
adult content
websites. If
brands,
agencies and
authorities
collaborate to
disrupt advertising revenue streams, we can
restrict the lifeblood of these sites,” he advised.
Other major revenue streams for infringing
sites are payments or donations from users to
the site’s operator via payment providers.
Bitcoin was the third most popular method of
payment offered by the sites, behind payment
by Visa and Mastercard.
The report, which was
commissioned by the Motion
Picture Association (MPA) also
examined the main advertising
intermediaries that distribute
adverts on behalf of companies and
brands across the sites in the
study. These intermediaries are
responsible for the ‘creative’ and
the actual delivery of adverts to the website,
which means brands have little control over
where the advert eventually appears. AdCash,
PropellerAds/OnClickAds2, DirectREV, and
Matomy Media Group are named as the top
advertising intermediaries.
Adverts for adult
content sites and
services accounted
for 10.4% of all
advertising.
Oz trade body backs
affordable, available
content
Improvements in the
affordability and ready
availability of online
content in Australia are
crucial ingredients to
reduce online copyright
infringement,
Communications Alliance –
the primary
telecommunications
industry body in Australia –
said in response to research
released by the then
Minister for
Communications, Malcolm
Turnbull in July 2015.
Welcoming the research
10 ContentSecurity
initiative, Communications
Alliance CEO John Stanton
said it pointed to the need for
heightened efforts by rights
holders to make legal online
content available to
Australian Internet users in a
timely and affordable way, as
part of an integrated strategy
to minimise online
infringement.
Infringers said that the top
three factors that would
encourage them to stop
infringing were:
l A reduction in the cost
of legal content (39%)
l Legal content being
more available (38%); and
l Legal content being
available as soon as it is
Gambling advertising accounted for 18.1%
of all adverts – the highest proportion of any
sector across all the countries examined.
The creative and advertising industries in
the UK have been working closely with the
Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit
(PIPCU) on the ground-breaking Operation
Creative initiative. The scheme deploys a
variety of tactical options, including the use
of an Infringing Website List (IWL), which
have successfully
addressed instances of
many major brands
appearing on illegal
sites. PIPCU and the
Federation Against
Copyright Theft
(FACT) are now
actively engaged with
the Gambling
Commission to ensure
that gambling operators licensed by the
Commission do not advertise on these sites.
The report follows an earlier Digital
Citizen’s Alliance study, Good Money Gone
Bad, which found that infringing websites
globally make a projected $227m in annual
advertising revenue. The 30 largest sites that
profit exclusively from advertising averaged
$4.4m annually, while the most heavily
trafficked BitTorrent and P2P portal sites
topped $6m every year.
The film and television industries
continue to meet consumer demand for
digital content by expanding the quality and
quantity of legal online content services,
providing a safe alternative to pirate
websites. A 2014 report from KPMG found
86% of the most popular and highest quality
film and television content is available
acr