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UK police to hijack banner ads to warn against piracy

The police are getting involved with the UK's new anti-piracy initiative it turns out. Right now the Police plan to take over banner ads on piracy sites to display warnings advising users to close the page and not proceed to download anything.

This is part of a campaign led by the City of London Police Intellectual Property crime unit (PIPCU). The unit will use technology provided by Project Sunblock, which is commonly used by brands in order to stop ads from appearing next to pirated content and porn.

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Detective Chief Inspector, Andy Fyfe, says that hijacking banner ads will make it harder for illegal download sites to mimic legitimate adverts: “When adverts from well-known brands appear on illegal websites, they… inadvertently fool consumers into thinking the site is authentic.”

“This new initiative is another step forward for the unit in tackling IP crime and disrupting criminal profits.”  These banner ad replacements are part of Operation Creative, which will allow copyright holders to report pirated content directly to the specialist IP crime unit.

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KitGuru Says: This move could reduce ad revenue for piracy sites and could actually be effective, unlike the weak ISP warning letter initiative. 

Source: PC Pro

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10 comments

  1. Dont those places actually pay companies to place those ads, You cant illegally pirate half the stuff they advertise, I have seen adds from clothes sites to Dating sites to gams. so surely the police hjikacking them is just as illegal?

  2. Will I still get adverts for penis enlargement right? I’m asking for a friend

  3. Cryss Roxas Leonhart

    *cough* adblock *cough*

  4. Considering they are going to pay companies to place the ads, which in turn will pay the pirate sites, I can see this backfiring in a Big way.

  5. I’m sorry, websites still have advertisements? I haven’t seen one of those for like 4 years.

  6. Look at the left and right hand sides of this website…

  7. You seem to have missed where I was going with that.
    Adblock, my friend, you’ll never have to sit through annoying Youtube ads or have unnecessary clutter on websites again.

  8. Funnily enough I actually like to support content creators! crazy, I know but I’m just a crazy kinda guy.

  9. Surely that breaks some kind of law in itself?

  10. Gary 'Gazza' Keen

    Indeed. If a company pays a website for advertisement it expects advertisement. If the police are hijacking these ad spaces then they are stealing from both the company and the site itself