According to the Guardian, the BPI had to have a stern word with both Apple and Napster after it materialised they were advertising their download services via an illegal P2P network. As far as the BPI is concerned companies who advertise with P2P firms like Kazaa are supporting and indirectly profiteering from the illegal distribution of music - and that is particularly stupid if the companies doing the advertising are themselves music companies. The BPI's Steve Redmond told The Guardian: "We deplore the unauthorised distribution of music on internet sites which prosper by selling advertising on the back of copyright theft".
Apple blamed a rogue agency who acted on their behalf but without their consent in booking the ads on the unnamed P2P network. That agency, Mediabrokers, blamed a rogue ad agency who acted on their behalf but without their consent. Which is something of a common theme when it comes to dodgy online advertising. It's amazing how many major brands you find advertising via those horrible spyware/adware platforms which are crippling thousands of computers every week. Said brands don't realise of course, because they outsource their online ad buying to an agency, who outsources it to another agency, who outsources it to another agency, who outsources it and so on and so on until some dumb ass books an ad on some nasty spyware/adware system. But ultimately it's the brand's fault - certainly it's their name that the customer is associating with the thing that is stopping their computer from working!
Not wishing to go on about this, but spyware/adware is one of the most horrible inventions of the internet age - computer viruses bankrolled by major advertisers. One of you journalists out there really should do an expose on the whole thing. We'd do it, but we're too busy trying to wipe the spyware off one of our PCs which has just stopped working because of it.