The Associated Press reports that the audience reading unauthorized online copies of newspaper and magazine articles is nearly 1.5 times larger, on average, than the readership on their own Web sites, according to a study released Thursday.
However, the problem, flagged by copyright cop Attributor Corp., could turn into a golden opportunity if media companies figure out a way to mine advertising revenue from the traffic flocking to their pirated stories posted on blogs and other sites.
Attributor, which makes software that trolls the Internet for copyright violations, estimates the average Web publisher could collect more than $150,000 in additional revenue by selling ads alongside its unlicensed material.
