The City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has launched its Infringing Website List (IWL), an online portal providing the digital advertising sector with an up-to-date list of copyright infringing sites.
Part of Operation Creative, the aim of the IWL is to disrupt the advertising revenues on illegal websites on a global scale, as brands and advertisers can inadvertently fund online crime if they do not know that a site is illegal.
The introduction of the IWL follows a three-month pilot that took place in 2013 in collaboration with the Operation Creative partners, including the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI), the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), The Publishers Association and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).
A recent report by the Digital Citizens Alliance estimated that in 2013, the most popular 30 piracy websites generated $227m from advertising and even small sites are making $100,000 a year.
Members of the IPA who handle display advertising are therefore being urged to register for access to the IWL portal, as it will be a crucial tool in quashing the unintentional funding of cyber crime.
Meanwhile, the Government’s Intellectual Property Adviser, Mike Weatherley MP, is urging Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary Theresa May to continue the funding of PIPCU and make it permanent, as it is currently only allocated money on a temporary basis and this will end next year if nothing is done.
In a recent letter to his bosses, Mr Weatherley points out that the creative industries contribute more than £70bn to the economy each year, so it really is in the national interest to protect that revenue.