Abstract
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | International Journal of Industrial Organization |
| Volume | 65 |
| Pages (from-to) | 121-151 |
| Number of pages | 31 |
| ISSN | 0167-7187 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2019 |
Keywords
- Piracy
- Copyright enforcement
- Online advertising
- Natural experiment
Cite this
}
Follow the Money : Online Piracy and Self-regulation in the Advertising Industry. / Batikas, Michail; Claussen, Jörg; Peukert, Christian.
In: International Journal of Industrial Organization, Vol. 65, 07.2019, p. 121-151.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Follow the Money
T2 - Online Piracy and Self-regulation in the Advertising Industry
AU - Batikas, Michail
AU - Claussen, Jörg
AU - Peukert, Christian
PY - 2019/7
Y1 - 2019/7
N2 - We study the effects of a self-regulation effort, orchestrated by the European Commission in 2016 and finalized in 2018, that aims to reduce advertising revenues for publishers of copyright infringing content. Data on the third-party HTTP requests made by a large number of piracy websites lets us observe the relations of the piracy and advertising industry over time. We compare these dynamics to a control group of non-advertising services which are not subject to the self-regulation. Our results suggest that the effort is limited in its effectiveness. On average, the number of piracy websites that make requests to EU-based advertising services does not change significantly. Only when we allow for heterogeneity in the popularity of third-party services, we find that the number of piracy websites that interact with the most popular EU-based advertising services decreases by 42%. We do not find evidence that non-EU-based advertising services react to the self-regulation. This implies that only a small share of the firms in the market comply with self-regulation in a way that is visible in our data. We also do not find evidence that the demand for piracy websites decreases due to this “follow the money” initiative.
AB - We study the effects of a self-regulation effort, orchestrated by the European Commission in 2016 and finalized in 2018, that aims to reduce advertising revenues for publishers of copyright infringing content. Data on the third-party HTTP requests made by a large number of piracy websites lets us observe the relations of the piracy and advertising industry over time. We compare these dynamics to a control group of non-advertising services which are not subject to the self-regulation. Our results suggest that the effort is limited in its effectiveness. On average, the number of piracy websites that make requests to EU-based advertising services does not change significantly. Only when we allow for heterogeneity in the popularity of third-party services, we find that the number of piracy websites that interact with the most popular EU-based advertising services decreases by 42%. We do not find evidence that non-EU-based advertising services react to the self-regulation. This implies that only a small share of the firms in the market comply with self-regulation in a way that is visible in our data. We also do not find evidence that the demand for piracy websites decreases due to this “follow the money” initiative.
KW - Piracy
KW - Copyright enforcement
KW - Online advertising
KW - Natural experiment
KW - Piracy
KW - Copyright enforcement
KW - Online advertising
KW - Natural experiment
UR - https://sfx-45cbs.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/45cbs?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info:sid/sfxit.com:azlist&sfx.ignore_date_threshold=1&rft.object_id=954921376719&rft.object_portfolio_id=&svc.holdings=yes&svc.fulltext=yes
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2019.02.001
DO - 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2019.02.001
M3 - Journal article
VL - 65
SP - 121
EP - 151
JO - International Journal of Industrial Organization
JF - International Journal of Industrial Organization
SN - 0167-7187
ER -