The record industry has welcomed the latest efforts by government and law enforcement agencies in Brazil to target websites that facilitate music piracy. Called Operation Redirect, the agencies behind the new scheme say that a particular focus this time was piracy sites that expose users to malware and viruses.
Welcoming the work, Paulo Rosa, President of record industry trade group Pro-Música Brasil, says, “This is another important operation which benefits creators and producers of music, as well as the Brazilian population vulnerable to malware distribution. We thank all the authorities involved for their hard work”.
The Brazilian government has been particularly proactive in targeting music piracy sites in recent years. A previous programme called Operation 404 secured the suspension of hundreds of domains, and the removal of hundreds of apps, that were allowing people to access unlicensed music.
According to an official statement, the new scheme has “already resulted in the identification and deactivation of eight sites that were sharing unauthorised music whilst exposing users to malware and viruses”.
Those sites included torrent search engines, stream-ripping services and websites that link to copyright infringing music files. Together they “received over 12 million visits in Brazil in the last year”.
Operation Redirect is also supported by global record industry trade group IFPI. Its CEO, Victoria Oakley, says these latest efforts constitute “an important step forward in our work to protect music in Brazil from being shared illegally online”.
“It wouldn’t be possible without the cooperation of The Ministry Of Justice And Public Security and Brazilian law enforcement”, she adds. “Finding and stopping these illegal online services is vital to protecting the careers of Brazilian artists and to the online safety of Brazilian music fans”.