UK Police Hijacks Ads on 251 Pirate Sites

City of London Police have seized ad revenue from 251 sites that host or link to copyrighted material and replaced and replaced ads with anti-piracy messages, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. For the last two years, the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has been working in conjunction with the film and music industries to attack pirate websites under the name ‘Operation Creative’.  As part of the deal, Police have struck an agreement with online advertisers to replace ads on infringing sites with Police banners.

The Freedom of Information request was submitted by TorrentFreak. The City of London Police told the site, “This is an ongoing investigation and disclosure to the public domain would raise the profile of those sites unlawfully providing copyright material. This would enable individuals to visit the sites highlighted and unlawfully download copyright material and increase the scale of the loss.”

PIPCU released figures on the effectiveness of ‘Operation Creative’ a few weeks ago that showed ad revenue for targeted pirate sites had decreased by 73%.

“Working closely with rights holders and the advertising industry, PIPCU has been able to lead the way with tackling copyright infringing sites by successfully disrupting advertising revenue,” said PIPCU’s Detective Chief Inspector Peter Ratcliffe.

Thank you TorrentFreak for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of Exeter Daily.