Content theft sites made nearly a quarter of a billion dollars last year from advertising on rip-off sites, according to a new report from the Digital Citizens Alliance. According to the study, the 30 largest sites that profit exclusively from advertising dollars by pushing stolen movies, music, and television programs will each make more than $4 million dollars a year for their 'work.'

The report, entitled Good Money Gone Bad: Digital Thieves and the Hijacking of the Online Ad Business, examined hundreds of content theft sites that featured advertising. The research shows that a significant number of ads on these sites come from premium and secondary legitimate brand advertisers. Secondary ads are non-premium legitimate ads, mostly for legitimate gaming, gambling and content aggregator sites.

Digital Citizens, a consumer-oriented coalition focused on educating the public and policy makers on the threats that consumers face on the Internet, commissioned MediaLink LLC, a leading research firm, to identify and quantify profits from rogue sites offering pirated content. The report came to several troubling conclusions:

- The websites researched make a projected $227 million in annual ad revenue. The 30 largest sites that profit exclusively from advertising averaged $4.4 million annually, with the most heavily trafficked BitTorrent and P2P portal sites topped $6 million annually.

- Even small sites studied could make more than $100,000 a year in advertising revenue.

- Because they rely entirely on the works of others for their "product," their profit margins range from 80% to 94%, underscoring that crime can pay when you steal other people's content.

- Nearly 30% of large sites carried premium brand ads.

- Nearly 40% of large sites carried legitimate secondary ads.

"This report confirms that content theft isn't a cottage industry - it's big business. Plain and simple, ad-supported rip-off sites are exploiting the Internet and advertising community to get rich," says Digital Citizens Alliance Executive Director Tom Galvin. "The result is a damage to brand value for advertisers and serious harm to people who work in the creative industries. We hope this report pushes the online advertising community to take additional steps to protect brand value and stop ads from appearing on content theft sites that are undermining the vibrancy and safety of the digital marketplace."

Story filed 20.02.14