TorrentFreak's Journal
 
[Most Recent Entries] [Calendar View]

Tuesday, February 12th, 2019

    Time Event
    11:25a
    Project Brand Integrity Aims to Purge Ads From Pirate Sites

    With the majority of public-facing pirate sites generating money from advertising, the past several years have seen the launch of numerous initiatives to drain them of their revenue.

    This so-called “follow-the-money” approach has proven popular in several regions, with the initial aim of protecting the brand image of major advertisers, who generally prefer not to have their logos placed alongside masses of pirated media.

    Back in 2015, a US-based program was launched by the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), a partnership founded by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), Association of National Advertisers, and Interactive Advertising Bureau.

    One of TAG’s key aims is to clean up the advertising ecosystem to make it more difficult for pirate sites to operate. Since then, a number of very high-profile companies have become partners.

    As of today, companies including Google, Facebook, Disney, Warner, NBC Universal, and Charter Communications count themselves as members of TAG’s ‘Leadership Council‘, “the operational decision-making body” for the organization.

    In January 2019, TAG’s latest report (produced alongside CreativeFuture) claimed significant successes, including reducing ad impressions on pirate sites from 20 billion in 2016 to ‘just’ two billion in 2018, a 90% hit overall.

    “In 2016-17, 60+ brands or agencies were each contributing large volumes of ads on pirate sites. Some premium brands placed between 5 and 25 million impressions per month. In 2018, no premium advertisers could be identified at high volumes on pirate sites,” the report notes.

    With these claimed successes in hand, TAG is now crossing the Atlantic in the hope of emulating its United States achievements with assistance from digital advertisers in Europe.

    This morning the group announced the launch of Project Brand Integrity, a partnership with brand protection company White Bullet. The latter will monitor pirate sites for advertising and then report back to TAG, who will share the information with advertisers and agencies “so that they can take remedial action.”

    “If you are a brand advertiser, the skull-and-crossbones isn’t just a pirate movie trope. It accurately reflects the toxic danger of associating your brand with stolen content and criminal activities on pirate sites,” says Mike Zaneis, CEO of TAG.

    “Project Brand Integrity will serve as an early warning system for advertisers and their agencies, so we can alert them when their ads have run near stolen content and help them implement effective safeguards to prevent it from happening again.”

    The involvement of White Bullet is interesting given that the company has worked closely with the UK’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU). The latter operates the Infringing Website List (IWL), a database of sites presented by various industries as piracy-focused and verified as such by PIPCU.

    TAG is keen to see both Europol and PIPCU get involved with its new EU-focused project, a move welcomed by the latter.

    “We are always pleased to see the introduction of initiatives such as Project Brand Integrity that uphold similar values to our own. PIPCU is at the forefront of combatting digital piracy,” says Detective Constable Steve Salway of PIPCU.

    “Our Operation Creative sees City of London Police officers disrupt criminal activity online by working with content owners and internet service providers. As a result we have seen over 1,800 illegal websites cease to operate, protecting UK consumers along with the preservation of the UK creative industry.”

    While TAG is promoted as an initiative, it’s worth pointing out that it’s a commercial operation (albeit a ‘not-for-profit’) and becoming involved is a fairly costly exercise.

    Basic TAG membership for an advertiser who wishes to be included in the registry of trusted partners costs a minimum of $10,000, rising to $20,000 if companies want access to TAG’s Data Center IP address and mobile app lists. The latter is produced with assistance from the MPAA and RIAA and currently contains more than 12,000 ‘pirate’ apps (pdf).

    The cost of joining TAG increases to $65,000 if an advertiser is accepted for the ‘Thought Leadership’ package (pdf) but ad agencies and ‘ad tech’ companies are expected to pay even more. While the basic package starts at $10,000, the top rate is $75,000 (pdf), so it’s certainly a considerable investment for those requiring the full service.

    The big question is whether the initiative will actually have a negative effect on the existence of pirate sites. A 2017 study commissioned by TAG and carried out by Ernst & Young claimed that anti-piracy steps taken by the advertising industry had reduced ad revenue to pirate sites by between 48 and 61%. Today, however, there is clearly no shortage of platforms to access content for free.

    It’s beyond doubt that top tier advertisers are certainly less prevalent on torrent and streaming sites than they were a few years ago, in part due to TAG’s scheme and others like it. However, most sites appear to have learned to live with the lower-tier ad options available to them today and are continuing on that basis.

    Only time will tell how long that will continue and whether increasing TAG pressure will push any over the edge.

    Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

    3:39p
    China Asks The Public to Help Crack Down on Movie Piracy

    With more than a billion citizens, China is seen as both a great opportunity and a great threat to the entertainment industries, Holywood included. 

    While China has traditionally been very reluctant to show ‘western’ movies, it has opened up in recent years much to the delight of the American movie studios. 

    The problem, however, is that both physical and online movie piracy is rampant. Hollywood and the US Government have signaled this in the past, and with a booming local movie industry, China is now committed to taking action as well. 

    Last week was the Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, which is generally a busy time at the box office. However, it’s also high time for pirates, which spurred the National Copyright Administration  (NCAC) into action.

    “In recent days, after the joint action of multiple departments and rightsholders, the piracy of Spring Festival movies has been curbed. We will refer the serious infringements and piracy cases to the public security department to take criminal measures,” NCAC announced on the local social media site Weibo

    The Copyright Administration called on the public to help and report instances of piracy through direct messages on Weibo, WeChat, and email. 

    “Please provide infringement clues and clean up the online copyright environment. Let’s work together,” the Government outfit wrote.

    Piracy is a growing concern among Chinese filmmakers, especially now that the local movie industry is booming. One of the widely pirated movies is the sci-fi blockbuster “The Wandering Earth.” The film premiered during the Spring Festival and broke records by grossing over 2 billion yuan (US$300 million).

    Photo: YouTube trailer

    The makers are obviously happy with this achievement. Over the past few days, however, they were preoccupied with taking down links to pirated copies. Gong Ge’er, who heads the movie’s anti-piracy unit, says that they complained to the Government as well, the South China Morning Post reports.

    “In recent days, the staff of The Wandering Earth have not had time to celebrate the box office success, but have devoted almost all their energy to complaining to authorities about piracy and blocking pirated copies,” Gong told the Beijing Youth Daily.

    Compared to last year there was a significant drop in moviegoers during the Spring Festival. This is partly due to online. In addition, leaked copies of The Wandering Earth and other blockbusters were also sold online, starting at one yuan per copy.

    For sale

    While piracy is certainly not a new phenomenon in China, it’s interesting to see that the authorities are calling on the public to help. And according to a recent update from the Copyright Administration, this has paid off.

    “All the infringement and piracy reports received through Weibo, WeChat, email, and other channels will be sorted out and handed over to the relevant copyright law enforcement agencies. We hope that the majority of users continue to provide relevant clues,” NCAC wrote.

    This will sound like music to the ears of the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a trade group that also represents Hollywood’s interest. Just last week it informed the U.S. Government that China must step up its game to better protect the interests of copyright holders, listing some examples of problematic sites. 

    “Traditional website piracy remains a major issue in China, causing significant damage to rights holders. Notorious piracy sites that disrupt the music and audiovisual marketplaces include zimuzu.tv, dytt8.net, 666c.com, sacdr.net, yymp3.com, musicool.cn, dy2018.com, xh127.com, b9good.com, dygang.com, loldytt.com, piaohua.com, bttt99.com, 80s.tw, meijutt.com, ygdy8.com, dysfz.vip, panduoduo.net, btbtdy.net, and lbldy.com,” IIPA wrote.

    Perhaps IIPA can address their concerns to the Chinese authorities directly as well, via Weibo, WeChat, or email.

    Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

    << Previous Day 2019/02/12
    [Calendar]
    Next Day >>

TorrentFreak   About LJ.Rossia.org