GroupM Will Require Partners to Become TAG-Certified

Today, WPP’s GroupM, the leading global media investment management company, announced that it will require all of its media partners to receive anti-piracy certification from the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) by Q1 2016. TAG is a voluntary initiative which helps prevent ad placement on websites which facilitate the distribution of pirated content and/or the illegal dissemination of counterfeit goods. (Read more about TAG in this blog.)

Certification entails that TAG has approved an advertising agency’s ability to identify at risk websites, prevent advertisements on such websites, disrupt fraudulent or deceptive transactions, and eliminate payments to such websites that facilitate access to illegal content and/or counterfeit goods. John Montgomery, Chairman of GroupM Connect in North America and Co-Chair of TAG Anti-piracy Working Group made the following statement in a press release:

We’re in the business of giving the world’s most valuable brands marketing advantage with smart media strategies. This inherently means we’re vigilant for clients’ brand safety. Our work with TAG in the development and now full adoption of anti-piracy guidelines is a major leap forward. With IAB, 4As, and ANA, we’ve worked years to make the digital ecoSystem more trustworthy. Fighting pirates of copyrighted content required every ounce of our tenacity and ingenuity, but with the advent of TAG’s Brand Integrity Program Against Piracy, we have powerful new tools and safeguards.

TAG and other voluntary initiatives, such as WheretoWatch.com, Rightscorp, and CreativeFuture, have emerged to aid consumers in finding legal content and raising awareness about websites, enterprises, and advertisers that violate intellectual property rights.

Diminishing ad-supported piracy is important to help ensure that content providers, artists, innovators, and marketers can earn a return on their creative works - incentivizing more innovation, investment, and economic growth. 

FSF scholars applaud the work of TAG and support this decision by GroupM!

“House of Cards” Illegally Distributed Throughout the World

On Friday February 27^th, Netflix released the third season of “House of Cards” for subscribers to binge watch over the weekend. However, according to Variety, almost 700,000 people illegally downloaded the show’s newest season within the first 24 hours of its release. This is twice as many pirates (or illegal downloaders) as the show’s second season and the distribution of downloads was spread throughout the world.

Top ten nations with illegal downloaders of “House of Cards” Season Three:
1. China – 60,538
2. US – 50,008
3. India – 47,106
4. Australia – 40,557
5. Poland – 37,552
6. UK – 32,703
7. Canada – 27,584
8. France – 27,151
9. Greece – 20,551
10. Netherlands – 20,402

I would think that Netflix’s content would be pirated less often than most video content, because users can view it anytime and because Netflix allows up to four devices to stream from the same account at the same time. However, residents of five of the top ten countries –China, India, Australia, Poland, and Greece – do not have access to Netflix’s service yet.

Some of these countries do not rank very high in the Global IP Center’s International IP Index, so while an expansion of Netflix’s service could help diminish the number of illegal downloaders, it would not completely eliminate it. Of course, this is obvious because the United States, which ranks first in the International IP Index and where Netflix’s service is prevalent, had the second most illegal downloaders.

Theft of intellectual property should never be excused. With that said, more ubiquitous access to Netflix’s offerings on a legal basis might disincentivize people from pirating content. Not only might Netflix benefit from expanding its service, but artists and creators throughout the world would have a greater incentive to produce more content as piracy decreases.

As for the piracy that is occurring despite access to Netflix’s service, ongoing tools and initiatives, such as WheretoWatch.com, Rightscorp, and Brand Integrity Program Against Piracy, are working to reduce the size and scope of illegal content markets. (See this FSF blog for more.)

Netflix does have a plan in place to reach 200 countries by 2017, and hopefully, if implemented, it will reduce the amount of pirated content in the future. Strong IP rights are important for ensuring that content providers, artists, innovators, and marketers can earn a return on their ideas and labor, incentivizing more innovation, investment, and economic growth.  

New Initiative Emerges with Goal of Diminishing Ad-Supported Piracy

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) recently launched what it is calling the Brand Integrity Program Against Piracy. The program will coordinate with companies in need of advertising and reliable advertising agencies in an attempt to diminish the number of advertisements that appear on websites which facilitate access to illegal content or counterfeit goods.

The Brand Integrity Program Against Piracy was supported at its launch by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a several organizations and companies involved in advertising, online publishing, advertising technology, media, and consumer protection, including: 

• Advertising: Association of National Advertisers (ANA), American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), GroupM Interaction

•  Advertising Technology: Collective, DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, L-3 and MiMTiD, sovrn, Veri-Site, whiteBULLET

• Media: Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), CreativeFuture, Copyright Alliance

• Consumer Protection: International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC)

Any advertising agency that wants to participate in TAG’s new initiative can do so by using validated tools and services to identify and prevent advertising from running on websites which violate core IP principles.

TAG will also work with third party validators, such as Ernst & Young and Stroz Friedberg, to certify ad agencies as “Digital Advertising Assurance Providers” (DAAPs). In order to be certified as a DAAP, advertising agencies must be able to identify ad risk entities, prevent advertisements on undesired ad risk entities, detect, prevent or disrupt fraudulent or deceptive transactions, and eliminate payments to undesired ad risk entities. Once an ad agency is certified as a DAAP, it can work with companies to ensure that their ads do not end up on websites with illegal content.

This is a very important initiative considering there has been a rise in the number of ad-supported piracy websites. The Digital Citizens Alliance released a February 2014 report entitled “Good Money Gone Bad,” concluding that websites selling advertising against illegal content make roughly $227 million in annual ad revenue. The largest Bit Torrent websites are making more than $6 million a year, but even some of the smallest websites make more than $100 thousand a year.

While it is hard to estimate how much of this ad revenue is lost to the original artists and brand owners, even a $1 loss to innovators and entrepreneurs due to theft of IP is very unfortunate. This initiative and other private tools, such as WheretoWatch.com and Rightscorp, are a step in the right direction towards diminishing the size and scope of online piracy and the sale counterfeit goods and content.

Strong IP rights are important for ensuring that content providers, artists, innovators, and marketers can earn a return on their ideas and labor, incentivizing more innovation, investment, and economic growth.  

"The Walking Dead" Has Millions of Pirates

The midseason premiere of AMC’s hit show “The Walking Dead” set a new record for the series in terms of illegal downloads. Variety reported that within 20 hours of the February 8^th premiere approximately 1.29 million Internet addresses had pirated the episode. Although HBO’s “Game of Thrones” season four premiere has the record with 1.86 million pirated copies within 24 hours of the debut, “The Walking Dead” seems to be the second most pirated show.

It is unfortunate that these pirate parties continue to occur and in record-setting fashion. (See here and here.) Innovative tools, such as WheretoWatch.com and Rightscorp, have emerged in order to diminish piracy and protect intellectual property rights. But as long as these unfortunate events continue to occur, new efforts should be made to severely diminish the size and scope of theft of intellectual property. The protection of intellectual property rights is essential for encouraging more innovation, creative content, and economic growth, because it gives individuals the ability and incentives to provide valuable goods and services for consumers.

Variety’s Top 20 Most Pirated Movies of 2014

Variety released a list on Sunday of the top 20 most pirated movies in 2014. “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Frozen” were the two most pirated movies at roughly 30 million illegal downloads each.

The total number of illegal downloads from this list is almost half a billion pirated copies in 2014 alone. The rest of the list looks like this:

1. “The Wolf of Wall Street”: 30.035 million (Paramount, Dec. 25, 2013)
2. “Frozen”: 29.919 million (Disney, Nov. 27, 2013)
3. “RoboCop”*: 29.879 million (MGM, Feb. 12, 2014; and Orion, July 17, 1987)
4. “Gravity”: 29.357 million (Warner Bros., Oct. 4, 2013)
5. “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”: 27.627 million (Warner Bros., Dec. 13, 2013)
6. “Thor: The Dark World”: 25.749 million (Disney/Marvel, Nov. 8, 2013)
7. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”: 25.628 million (Disney/Marvel, April 4, 2014)
8. “The Legend of Hercules”: 25.137 million (Summit, Jan. 10, 2014)
9. “X-Men: Days of Future Past”: 24.380 million (20th Century Fox, May 23, 2014)
10. “12 Years a Slave”: 23.653 million (Fox Searchlight, Oct. 18, 2013)
11. “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”: 23.543 million (Lionsgate, Nov. 22, 2013)
12. “American Hustle”: 23.143 million (Sony/Columbia, Dec. 13, 2013)
13. “300: Rise of an Empire”: 23.096 million (Warner Bros., March 7, 2014)
14. “Transformers: Age of Extinction”: 21.65 million (Paramount, June 27, 2014)
15. “Godzilla”: 20.956 million (Warner Bros., May 16, 2014)
16. “Noah”: 20.334 million (Paramount, March 28, 2014)
17. “Divergent”: 20.312 million (Lionsgate, March 21, 2014)
18. “Edge of Tomorrow”: 20.299 million (Warner Bros., June 6, 2014)
19. “Captain Phillips”: 19.817 million (Sony/Columbia, Oct. 11, 2013)
20. “Lone Survivor”: 19.130 million (Universal, Dec. 25, 2013)

* Combines data for both 1987 and 2014 versions.

Take note that “The Expendables 3” does not appear on the list despite a massive pre-release piracy that occurred this summer. (See here and here for more information.) This list shows the size and scope of the problem with pirated movies, which is just a fraction of all pirated content, including music and other content.

More tools, such as WheretoWatch.com and Rightscorp, continue to emerge in efforts to diminish piracy and protect intellectual property rights. But everyone needs to do more because the protection of intellectual property is essential for encouraging more innovation, creative content, and economic growth.

Sony Is the Latest Victim of Online Piracy

Last week, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s email system and other internal systems were hacked by a group called “Guardian of Peace.” This week, five of the studio’s movies were leaked online, including “Fury” and “Annie.” Oddly enough, the two incidents may not be related because it is being reported that the movies, which have been uploaded to many “torrent” websites, were ripped from DVDs.

Online piracy is a serious problem with serious consequences. Two men were recently arrested in London for the their role in leaking the movie “The Expendables 3,” which had over 2.2 million views before it even hit theaters this past summer. The theft of these five Sony movies likely could cost the studio hundreds of millions of dollars before it is over, especially considering that four of the five movies have not been released in theaters yet.

Online piracy is very detrimental to encouraging creative content, so it is important that various groups work together to quickly reduce it. The Motion Picture Association of America recently released a new website, WheretoWatch.com, which helps consumers quickly locate legal content online, in stores, or at the movies theaters. Rightscorp is another good tool that notifies Internet Service Providers, content companies, and consumers when content is pirated online.

Although this recent Sony incident is a step in the wrong direction, hopefully more tools that help secure strong intellectual property rights, like WheretoWatch.com and Rightscorp, will continue to emerge. The protection of intellectual property is essential for encouraging more innovation, creative content, and economic growth.

“The Expendables 3” Hurt By Pre-Release Piracy

Free State Foundation President Randolph May released a blog earlier in the month about a massive pre-release piracy of the movie, “The Expendables 3.”  At least 2.2 million people had watched the movie before it had even hit theaters. But now that the movie has been out for over a week, let’s see how it did.

Not that well.

According to a New York Post article, “The Expendable 3,” which cost $100 million to produce, has made only $16 million. Because of the leaked version, Lions Gate Entertainment, the movie’s production company, likely lost “tens of millions of dollars” it otherwise would have garnered. It is now suing the websites that posted an illegal version.

While it cannot be predicted how much money the movie would have made but for the pre-release leak onto the Internet, there is clearly still a piracy problem that can severely hurt production companies and artists.

A company like Rightscorp is a good example of how some aspects of the piracy problem possibly can be addressed without government intervention (see the website for more information). Some copyright violators simply do not know that what they are streaming or downloading happens to be an illegal pirated version of a song or video. “The Expendables 3” might have been more obvious than usual because the movie had not been released yet. There is certainly an educational aspect to video and music piracy that should continue to be addressed. For example, maybe part of the answer is teaching students about piracy in computer classes.

Given the amount of money companies and artists are losing from piracy, there seems to be a valuable opportunity for more innovative ideas that can continue to educate Internet users about the harm caused by theft of intellectual property.