TAG Initiative Reduced Advertising Revenue from Piracy

The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), an advertising industry initiative with the goal of diminishing the number of advertisements that appear on websites which facilitate access to illegal content or counterfeit goods, released a new study called "Measuring Digital Advertising Revenue to Infringing Sites." 

Here are some of the key findings from the study:

• Digital ad revenue linked to infringing content was estimated at $111 million last year, of which 83% came from non-premium advertisers.

• If the industry had not taken aggressive steps to reduce piracy, those pirate site operators would have potentially earned an additional $102-$177 million in advertising revenue, depending on the breakdown of premium and non-premium advertisers.

• Ongoing industry efforts against piracy have therefore reduced the advertising revenue of pirate sites by 48% to 61%.

It is necessary to address, and diminish, piracy and content theft through voluntary initiatives like TAG to help ensure that content providers, artists, innovators, and marketers can earn a return on their creative works – thereby incentivizing more innovation, investment, and economic growth.

MPAA and Donuts Establish New Voluntary Initiative Tackling Piracy

On February 9, 2016, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Donuts Inc., the world’s largest operator of new domain name extensions, established a voluntary initiative to help ensure that websites using Donuts-operated top-level domains are not engaging in large-scale piracy. Under the terms of the agreement, Donuts will treat MPAA as a “Trusted Notifier” with respect to referrals that include clear evidence of copyright infringement.

MPAA will submit referrals to Donuts regarding domains which provide false Whois information, engage in copyright infringement, and/or facilitate the sale of illegal content. Then, Donuts will review the referrals and take appropriate enforcement action against the domains.

In December 2015, “Digital Bait”, a Digital Citizens Alliance report, found that malware associated with piracy sites cost consumers $70 million per year.

Piracy online remains a problem. Additionally, for instance, the recent movies “Interstellar” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” have been pirated over 46 million and 30 million times, respectively. This agreement between MPAA and Donuts and other voluntary initiatives, such as TAG and MPAA’s WheretoWatch.com, help consumers find legal content and raise awareness about websites, enterprises, and advertisers that violate intellectual property rights.

Other initiatives, like the Copyright Alert System, allow artists and creators to protect their intellectual property by alerting Internet service providers when a subscriber has engaged in copyright infringement.

It is necessary to address and hopefully diminish piracy and content theft with voluntary initiatives to help ensure that content providers, artists, innovators, and marketers can earn a return on their creative works – thereby incentivizing more innovation, investment, and economic growth. The new Donuts-MPAA voluntary agreement is a positive step in the ongoing fight against piracy of online content. 

Piracy and Malware Are Closely Related Problems

On December 3, 2015, I posted a blog about a new Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) study, which found that advertising fraud, piracy websites, and “malvertising” costs the U.S. digital marketing, advertising, and media industry $8.2 billion annually in potential revenue. The study also specifically found that illegal content costs advertising companies and digital marketing firms $2.4 billion annually in potential revenue.

This week, on December 8, the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) announced a list of major advertisers who have pledged to require their advertising partners to take aggressive steps to help fight the $2.4 billion annual loss. Some of the big names include Allstate, American Express, Comcast, and Walmart. (See my February 2015 blog on TAG’s Brand Integrity Program Against Piracy.)

Also, on December 9, the Digital Citizens Alliance (DCA) released a new report entitled “Digital Bait.” The report found that one out of every three piracy websites contains malware. Additionally, consumers are 28 times more likely to receive malware from a website with illegal content than from a website with licensed content providers. The report also found that 45 percent of malware is delivered by “drive-by downloads,” which invisibly download malware onto a user’s computer without the user clicking on anything. Lastly, the report found that advertising revenue and sales of user information on piracy websites amounted to $70 million in revenue in 2015.

If it was not already clear, the IAB and DCA reports show that advertising fraud, piracy, and malware-related advertising are serious problems costing companies billions of dollars in potential revenue. However, it is encouraging to see voluntary initiatives from TAG and major advertisers that stand up against websites which facilitate illegal content.

It is necessary to diminish ad-supported piracy and advertising fraud to help ensure that content providers, artists, innovators, and marketers can earn a return on their creative works – thereby incentivizing more innovation, investment, and economic growth. 

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!