> because that's the image their PR machine has very carefully cultivated
That's perfectly written. TPB once stood for freedom of the internet, even I don't deny that. However, when the original founders gave the website to an offshore company it became a website purely for profit but continued using the "freedom" excuse to create some kind of moral high ground.
"Download accelerators" like installerex.com or "anonymous vpn" (they advertise getprivate.net at the moment) which installs adware. Also, Samsung advertises on TPB ( https://torrentfreak.com/samsung-exposed-as-top-advertiser-o... ). Adware can generate high revenue even on websites like TPB since the adware wont appear on TPB but replace a legitimate sites ad banner. The industry has gotten a little harder mind you, since adsense recently stopped adware software from using adsense's "custom search" ad.
I don't understand why people think torrent websites are not profitable. Reddit and TF comments always claim it's not-for-profit. IsoHunt might not have as much profit as TPB due to it's constant lawsuits. However, hosting a website like IsoHunt is fairly lightweight in comparison to hosting YouTube. Torrents are tiny files, $30k server bills per month at most, probably they spend $10k/mo. They have ads and paid membership. I doubt they earn $110 million, but I do believe it's likely that they atleast earn $4 mill per year. Keep in mind there website has a lot of traffic.