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The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has launched its Infringing Website List (IWL), designed to disrupt websites which provide access to pirated e-books, music, films and more.
The online portal is part of Operation Creative, which launched last year and aims to disrupt and prevent websites from providing unauthorised access to copyrighted content, in partnership with the creative and advertising industries, including The Publishers Association.
The IWL provides the digital advertising sector with an up-to-date list of copyright infringing sites, identified by the creative industries and evidenced and verified by PIPCU, which is based in the City of London Police.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fyfe, head of PIPCU, said: “If an advert from an established brand appears on an infringing website not only does it lend the site a look of legitimacy, but inadvertently the brand and advertiser are funding online crime. Therefore the IWL also serves as a safety tool, ensuring the reputation of advertisers and brands are not discredited through association with illegal websites."
The introduction of the IWL follows a three month pilot that took place last year in collaboration with the Operation Creative partners – The Publishers Association, the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI), the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB UK), the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).
The pilot saw a 12% reduction in advertising from major household brands on the identified illegal websites, and found that almost half (46%) of ads served to the sites clicked through to fraudulent scams.
A report by the Digital Citizens Alliance estimated that in 2013 piracy websites generated $227m from advertising.
Creative industries Minister Ed Vaizey said: “The creative industries are a real UK success story. They are now worth £71.4 billion a year to the UK economy and grew faster than all other sectors of UK industry in 2012. It is essential we protect our creative industries from people ripping off their content online.
“Disrupting the money unlawful websites make from advertising could make a real difference to the fight against copyright infringement.”
PIPCU launched in September 2013 and is initially being funded by the Intellectual Property Office, part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.