IPPro The Internet Issue 140

Supported Piracy
Now, why would CNN keep interrupting a news story as important
as this with annoying commercials? Also, while it is not surprising to
see a well-known company like Verizon, or even Safelite, advertise
on CNN, isn’t it odd to see a commercial for a quack-ish weight-loss
cure? And what of the ghastly comments in the sidebar, from neo-
Nazi nutcases rejoicing over the attack? Why was CNN allowing such
comments on its YouTube channel?
And how did we get to this dodgy website? Courtesy of a routine
Google search, once again:
The answer to all of this, of course, is that the live stream was not
on CNN’s official YouTube channel, but rather a pirate channel.
Hundreds of such rogue pages abound on YouTube, peddling news,
sports, sitcoms and movies.
Outside YouTube, the numbers probably run into thousands. As a
simple example see the screenshots below, taken both with and
without an adblocker:
Quite evidently, pirate websites are supported by advertising. And
these are not just spammy ads of the 1800-Gain-Back-Youth-and-
Look-Sexy-Miracle-Pill variety (which, sadly, we can report from
personal experience do not work). Rather, many of these ads are from
perfectly respectable businesses.
In 2014, a report authored by Mike Weatherley, who at the time was a
British MP and intellectual property advisor to then UK Prime Minister
David Cameron, estimated that 600 pirate websites generated over
$200 million through ad revenues the previous year. The report found
that nearly a third of the ads were of household brands, usually
placed by ad networks a step removed from the actual company.
In India, a report prepared last year by the Veri-site division of our
company, SIPI, which was commissioned by the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) tracked 1,143 pirate
websites and found a whopping 73 percent to be supported by ads.
Over half were ads of well-known global brands. The report also
found several instances of websites containing viruses and malware—
something most visitors to pirate websites can attest to.
It could be that brands and
advertisers see piracy as a much lesser
evil than hate speech—an eminently
justifiable position
Bharat Kapoor, COO, Strategic IP Information
23 IPPro The Internet www.ipprotheinternet.com