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Follow The Money: Piracy and Online Advertising

Author

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  • Batikas, Michail
  • Claussen, Jörg
  • Peukert, Christian

Abstract

Online copyright enforcement, in the form of either direct action against the supply- side (via website shutdowns) or the demand-side (via individual lawsuits against users), has not been very effective in reducing piracy. Regulators have therefore put forward the so called “follow the money" approach. Because the main source of revenue for infringing websites often comes from online advertising, the idea is that cutting access to advertisers could lower the financial incentives for website owners. In this paper, we aim to provide systematic evidence on the effectiveness of such a policy. We collect data on the advertising services associated with a large number of piracy websites and corresponding set of legitimate \placebo" websites before and after the _rst steps of a self-regulatory effort in the European Union went in place. Preliminary results suggest that advertising services indeed reduce their activities on piracy websites, however only those that are most likely to be directly affected by the regulation. We further provide evidence that some advertising services that did not cater to the piracy market before, start to do so { perhaps as a strategic response.

Suggested Citation

  • Batikas, Michail & Claussen, Jörg & Peukert, Christian, 2017. "Follow The Money: Piracy and Online Advertising," 28th European Regional ITS Conference, Passau 2017 169448, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:itse17:169448
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Luis Aguiar & Jörg Claussen & Christian Peukert, 2018. "Catch Me If You Can: Effectiveness and Consequences of Online Copyright Enforcement," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 656-678, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Piracy; Copyright Enforcement; Online Advertising;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media
    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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