Marchingontogether
TK Veteran
The entertainment industry now cooperates with the police and advertising companies to try and reduce revenue to online portals allegedly engaged in copyright violation. In addition, a new tactic has already emerged: police seems to be going to influence consumer behavior by placing adverts on such websites themselves.
For example, City of London Police is working with the entertainment industries on the so-called “Operation Creative”, a campaign meant to make life much more difficult for websites providing access to illegal content. These efforts resulted in the Infringing Website List, a database which contains domains that companies and brands must avoid when placing their ads on the Internet. Their intentions are clear – by throttling advertising revenue to the infringing portals they will force them to die out.
The plan is the following: the police will reach out directly to users of piracy websites and try to convince them to change their ways. This will be done by “advertising” on the websites. City of London Police is going to take over banner advertising on infringing portals with the aim of influencing consumer behavior. In such a way, they would try to encourage file-sharers to stop doing what they do.
Of course, taking over banner ads on file-sharing services can raise some interesting questions, not least one at the very core of the issue – revenue. Apparently, the police will need to find a way to advertise on websites for free, or their campaign will end up with the opposite result and finance their enemies. Moreover, the file-sharing portals probably will not be very interested in running free advertisements, especially those that can take their users away.
While the entertainment industry may plan a traditionally aggressive anti-piracy campaign, a more considered positive reinforcement of legal streaming and other services may have more longevity. It is unclear where the adverts will appear, because the Infringing Website List is still a secret, but the authorities admit that websites will be informed of their inclusion in advance to have time to change their behavior.
This move follows 2 initiatives in 2013. The first saw police writing to website owners in a bid to secure voluntary shutdowns, while the second targeted registrars and forced the seizure or suspension of infringing domains.
For example, City of London Police is working with the entertainment industries on the so-called “Operation Creative”, a campaign meant to make life much more difficult for websites providing access to illegal content. These efforts resulted in the Infringing Website List, a database which contains domains that companies and brands must avoid when placing their ads on the Internet. Their intentions are clear – by throttling advertising revenue to the infringing portals they will force them to die out.
The plan is the following: the police will reach out directly to users of piracy websites and try to convince them to change their ways. This will be done by “advertising” on the websites. City of London Police is going to take over banner advertising on infringing portals with the aim of influencing consumer behavior. In such a way, they would try to encourage file-sharers to stop doing what they do.
Of course, taking over banner ads on file-sharing services can raise some interesting questions, not least one at the very core of the issue – revenue. Apparently, the police will need to find a way to advertise on websites for free, or their campaign will end up with the opposite result and finance their enemies. Moreover, the file-sharing portals probably will not be very interested in running free advertisements, especially those that can take their users away.
While the entertainment industry may plan a traditionally aggressive anti-piracy campaign, a more considered positive reinforcement of legal streaming and other services may have more longevity. It is unclear where the adverts will appear, because the Infringing Website List is still a secret, but the authorities admit that websites will be informed of their inclusion in advance to have time to change their behavior.
This move follows 2 initiatives in 2013. The first saw police writing to website owners in a bid to secure voluntary shutdowns, while the second targeted registrars and forced the seizure or suspension of infringing domains.