Dive Brief: 

• A new report released Tuesday by the Digital Citizens Alliance, a nonprofit focused on Internet safety issues, has released the first tally for ad revenue earned from sites that pirate copyrighted material.
• According to the report, piracy sites pulled in $227 million in ad revenue in 2013. 
• The report also identified major brands running ads on sites known for pirating material, including AT&T, Lego, and Toyota. 

Dive Insight: 

Because of the rise of automation in ad buying, it can be difficult to lay blame to this serious issue. Not only do the content creators lose out because the sites are pirating their material, but the brands whose ads end up on these sites lose credibility. As long as ad exchanges continue to drive ad revenue to the sites, the problem will continue. Although some of it is still beyond their control, brand advertisers should take due diligence to monitor where their ads are appearing to help combat the problem.