Shelly Palmer

The business and politics of piracy

Piracy

So there should be a welcome for a big piece of research into piracy sites and how they are funded. This study was undertaken by the security firm Detica on behalf of two organisations which might not seem natural bedfellows, Google and PRS for Music, which represents songwriters. And what it shows is exactly what you might have suspected – that piracy is big business. The study identifies six different business models for online copyright infringement, and finds that advertising and subscription are very professionally integrated into many of the sites. Often, you will see the logos of well-known payment services on sites. Read the full story at BBC.