Amazon, Facebook and Google Paid Millions to Pirates, Study Finds
A new report published by the Digital Citizens Alliance suggests that pirates sites earn more than a billion dollars in revenue per year, while pirate apps are good for another quarter. Part of the money comes from big brands such as Amazon, Facebook and Google. While Amazon appears to take the problem seriously, the report sees plenty of room for improvement at Google's end.
Most pirate sites and apps won’t survive without advertising revenue. This is why the advertising industry is seen as an important partner to combat piracy.
Major copyright holder groups hope to convince major players to stay clear from anything piracy-related to drain infringing sites of their income.
Several voluntary initiatives have been set up to facilitate this process. This includes the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), an anti-piracy certification program steered by giants including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Facebook, Disney and Warner Bros.
Despite the involvement of these major players, the problem persists. A few days ago the Digital Citizens Alliance published the results of a study titled “Breaking (B)ads”, which takes a detailed look at the advertising ecosystem surrounding pirate sites and apps.
