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IPO publishes video promoting Infringing Website List to advertisers
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 30 March 2016
The UK’s Intellectual Property Office has made a little video for all you advertising industry types to promote the City Of London Police’s Infringing Website List, which exists to tell advertisers what websites to avoid on copyright grounds when buying online ads.
The previously reported list is part of efforts by the police force’s IP Crime Unit to cut off the revenue streams of piracy websites, and to ensure that recognisable brands don’t appear on infringing sites, the theory being that such advertising may suggest to unknowing users that the service is in someway legit.
The new video says that 294 of top 500 IP infringing websites contain advertising from recognisable brands, and of those brands, 43 appear in the Top 1000 businesses based on ad spend. The video’s stern narrator them says: “Apart from adding legitimacy to crime, by connecting themselves with all the risks associated with illegal websites, including viruses and malware, brands are tarnishing their reputations, and they are paying for the privilege”.
Which is a stupid thing to do. So stop being so fucking stupid ad people. That’s the basic gist of the video. I’ve paraphrased it a little, but only in a bid to create the sort of slogan an advertising exec can comprehend.
You can watch the video here if you so please:
