Thursday, July 18, 2013

Google ads to be blocked from sites offering pirated content

US initiative will stop websites that offer pirated content from offering adverts from search giant and other advertisers

Pirate Flag
Copyright holders will be able to alert the big ad networks if their ads are appearing on sites offering links to pirated content. Photograph: Feng Yu/Alamy

Websites offering pirated content will be blocked from offering adverts from Google and other big web advertisers, in a US scheme intended to strangle illicit revenues.
The initiative will mean copyright holders from the music, film and other creative industries will be able to alert the big ad networks if their ads are appearing on sites offering links to pirated content or counterfeit goods.

The British music industry body, the BPI, is also working with the Internet Advertising Bureau in the UK on a scheme that has yet to be announced which will involve a central database of piracy sites for ad networks, agencies and brands to refer to and avoid when planning campaigns.

Pirate sites often make large amounts of money from Google and other advertisers because millions of users visit their sites every month – and often have the sort of age profile that web advertisers are keen to reach.
One British site that linked to pirated content, Surfthechannel, made as much as £35,000 per month from on-site adverts before its owner was jailed. Emails from The Pirate Bay revealed ahead of its founders' trial some years ago showed it was offered £65,000 per month to run casino and poker ads.

Such sites tend to use adverts as a revenue source because it means they don't have to set up merchant accounts with organisations such as PayPal, Visa and Mastercard to process payments from customers who might anyway be unwilling to pay them for content.

More

No comments: