ENFORCEMENT

Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement
SECTION 2
As digital advertising is dependent in part on the
number of users who are exposed to the website
ads, websites promoting counterfeit or unauthorized
content can receive substantial digital advertising
revenue when placed on pages featuring popular
content, such as music, films, television shows, games,
software, and eBooks. According to one recent
study, operators of websites dedicated to unlawfully
exploiting third-party content may have made nearly
$250 million, with “the 30 largest sites that profit
exclusively from advertising dollars by pushing stolen
movies, music, and television programs” generating
an average of more than $4 million dollars a year in
illicit proceeds. 17
Excerpt of Testimony Before the House Committee
on the Judiciary
“As a global leader in online advertising, Google is
committed to rooting out and ejecting rogue sites
from our advertising services. Google continues its
efforts, both proactive and reactive, to detect and
act against advertisers and web publishers who
violate our policies against copyright infringement.
Since 2012, we have ejected more than 73,000
sites from our AdSense program, the vast majority
of those caught by our own proactive screens.”
Testimony of Google’s Senior Copyright Policy Counsel
before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts,
Intellectual Property, and the Internet Hearing
(March 13, 2014).
As with payment processor models discussed
above, all legitimate ad networks similarly prohibit—
by way of contractual “terms of use” or “terms of
service”—the use of their services and platforms for
unlawful conduct, including IP-infringing activities. 18
Reporting suggests that the enforcement of these
terms of service (see sidebar) has helped root out a
large volume of advertisers and web publishers who
engaged in copyright infringement. Notwithstanding
these contractual prohibitions, and efforts to
implement industry best practices including the use
of proactive screening, ad network platforms continue
to be exploited by sophisticated entities engaged in
widespread infringement of third-party content.
Moreover, concerns about ad-supported websites
dedicated to counterfeit or infringing activity go beyond
the revenue loss to the content creator. Those entities
engaged in the operation of such websites reportedly
display malware-based ads in significant numbers
that pose risks to consumers and generate income by
defrauding legitimate advertisers and other businesses.
According to recent reports, high-risk ads comprised
of malware and fraudulent ad-revenue generation
techniques (such as click generator fraud, pop-under
ads, pixel stuffing, etc.) represent from 51 to 60 percent
of all ads displayed on websites dedicated to offering
counterfeit products and infringing content. 19
American advertising industry groups have in
recent years launched several initiatives that seek
to protect the integrity of the digital advertising
system and of third-party content and brands from
criminal exploitation by working to keep the flow
of legitimate advertising dollars to the operators of
legitimate websites and away from those engaged
in illicit activity, including content infringement
and counterfeiting. 20 Building on pledges from the
advertising community, a new voluntary initiative
has been launched to further dry up advertising
revenue generated by traffic to websites offering
infringing content. 21 Through this and other
industry-led initiatives, many of the world’s largest
brand advertisers and agencies have committed to
take aggressive steps to keep their digital ads off
these sites. 22 There remains significant work ahead,
since legitimate companies continue to find their
advertisements (and thus their ad dollars) inadvertently
placed on sites dedicated to widespread, commercialscale
IP infringement (FIG. 34). According to one
report, nearly 30 percent of sampled websites in a
survey of ad-supported pirate websites carried ads
for “blue-chip” premium brands with recognizable
household names. 23
Opportunities exist to support and expand
collaboration between all stakeholders to augment
these voluntary initiatives and stay ahead of the
rapidly changing tactics rogue actors employ.
Expanded collaboration, including by geographic
scope, and enhanced sharing with the public of
generalized, anonymized data on terminated accounts
(such as, for example, by age of account, revenue
flow to the site, geographic location of the site),
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