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Operation Creative prevents millions of pounds ending up in the hands of criminals
12 March 2020
Damien Bidmead
Research shows that there has been an 87% drop in adverts for licensed gambling operators being displayed on illegal sites that infringe copyright in the last twelve months. (Posted 13 Jun 2017 - read original article here)
A ground-breaking police operation, run by the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), that disrupts illegal websites providing pirated access to films, TV, books, music and games has seen major success.
Action was taken to help stop licensed gambling operators inadvertently providing revenue to those committing crime online, which runs counter to their licensing objective under the Gambling Act 2005 to “keep crime out of gambling”. Through the Infringing Website List (IWL), gambling operators are provided with an up-to-date list of copyright infringing sites, allowing them to stop advert placement on these illegal websites.
The research was carried out by White Bullet; a global data company that specialise in brand safety solutions and provide transparency on digital advertising on IP infringing websites.
In October 2016, the Gambling Commission
made placing digital adverts responsibly a licensing condition for all gambling operators targeting consumers in Great Britain. This condition means that licensees must not place adverts on illegal websites and must take all reasonable steps to ensure that third parties under contract with them take the same approach. These illegal websites harm not only the UK’s creative industries but also the UK consumer.
Data was gathered on 40 gambling operators who hold a Gambling Commission licence and are current members of the IWL. The results are positive for these gambling companies whose aim is to stop their advertising budgets ending up with criminals.
The Gambling Commission has been working with industry to raise awareness of the new condition and requirements and has already taken targeted interventions to ensure compliance.
PIPCU launched Operation Creative and the IWL in 2013 to tackle the funding of illegal streaming websites that adversely impact on the UK’s creative industries. This is a police endorsed list of websites which host copyright infringing content and is used by advertisers and advertising networks to avoid placing adverts on them and therefore passing revenue to them.
Research carried out earlier this year by White Bullet showed that there has been a 64% decrease in advertising
from the UK’s top ad spending companies on copyright infringing websites.
Acting Detective Superintendent Peter Ratcliffe, Head of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), said:
“The success of a strong relationship built between PIPCU and The Gambling Commission can be seen by these figures. This is a fantastic example of a joint working initiative between police and an industry regulator.
“We commend the 40 gambling companies who are already using the Infringing Website List and encourage others to sign up.
“We will continue to encourage all UK advertisers to become a member of the Infringing Website List to ensure they’re not inadvertently funding criminal websites”
Tim Moss, CEO of the UK Intellectual Property Office, said:
“Partnership work is clearly having a major impact on IP crime across the UK. PIPCU and the Gambling Commission have cut off yet another illicit revenue stream for unscrupulous IP thieves.
“The government and its partners will continue to fight IP crime in all its forms. Those wishing to profit from the hard work of others will not have an easy ride.”
Paul Hope, Gambling Commission programme director said:
“The Gambling Commission is committed to ensuring gambling is free from crime. This is why we brought in a requirement that all operators must not place digital advertisements on websites providing unauthorised access to copyrighted content.
“The result of this latest initiative speaks for itself, and we are delighted with these figures.”
Peter Szyszko, CEO of White Bullet said:
“White Bullet’s research and analysis shows just how much progress can be made when the industry comes together. Many gambling companies now recognise the damage to brand equity associated with advertising on illegal websites and don’t want their ad budget supporting criminals.
“The most significant progress has been made where brands work with the IWL and use White Bullet’s data to identify ad networks and affiliates that repeatedly put their brands at risk. Brands and ad companies now have tools to protect themselves and consumers.”
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As a WIPO ALERT member, we are delighted to support this initiative to help defund online piracy,” says Peter Szyszko, Founder and CEO, White Bullet. “WIPO plays an important role by providing a policy forum to shape international IP rules for a changing world, as well as technical infrastructure to connect IP systems and share knowledge, to enable all countries to use IP for economic, social and cultural development.
Crime pays, but it does so with money that, in the proper hands, could have done a lot of good. We might never entirely stop it, but we can all stop supporting it, and some of us will keep on doing our best to fight it.
On behalf of broadcasters, we can tackle a real-time pirate event on two fronts, through a strategy of demonetization and de-indexing that uses all the intelligence we pick up from watching the pirates come and go.
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