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back to article Pirates, pirates, whatchu gonna do? Advertisers cop a visit from PIPCU

Knock knock. Who's there? This Wednesday, officers from the City of London Police's Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) trying to get your advertising agency to stop helping pirate sites generate revenue. Eight organisations – from influential brands, through to advertising agencies and ad networks – got a polite visit …

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  1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

    "but simply visiting the sites can put the public at risk of malware, viruses and click-through scams"

    Oh, what you mean like visiting The New York Times, Reuters, Yahoo!, Bloomberg and YouTube?

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/08/27/malvertising_feature/?page=3

    25 0 Reply
  2. Mage Silver badge

    Driveby malware from Ads

    Also last year on CNN.com and bbc.com version of BBC News.

    Legitimate sites often also have google managed ads for illegal stuff and piracy.

    3 0 Reply
  3. davenewman

    Get them to stop advertising with spammers

    If only they would stop them advertising with spammers. UKTV is paying bronto.com to send out spam emails promoting their sales, with an ignored opt-out link.

    3 0 Reply
    1. waldo kitty
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      Re: Get them to stop advertising with spammers

      haven't you learned yet that those are confirmation links? they're not opt-out links... clicking them confirms your email as active and ready to be sold to others...

      6 0 Reply
      1. Richard 12 Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Get them to stop advertising with spammers

        Google and Microsoft both have automated "opt me out and report as spam" features.

        I'm sure other email providers have similar features.

        Much better than clicking the manual link, as the spammer gets blackholed in future as well - and not only for you!

        0 0 Reply
  4. Christoph
    Big Brother

    So Plod can now shut down the funding for any site they take a dislike to, with no oversight and no appeal.

    They don't even need to tell the site that it's happened, or why they've suddenly lost their advertising.

    4 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Obligatory: Remember that this is the City of London Police we're talking about.

      It's just purely coincidental that a police force covering a single square mile out of the 93,000 making up the United Kingdom almost always turns out to be the one behind cases like this. (Ahem).

      1 0 Reply
  5. BobChip
    Unhappy

    Trust????

    Pretty much everyone you deal with online these days seems to be either untrustworthy or dishonest - or both - to some degree. From blatantly "post-truth" news sites, to gathering every possible bit of information about you "to improve your experience", the net seems to be little more than a sea full of dangerous icebergs.

    If advertisers, publishers and manufacturers (eg Google, Microsoft, Volkswagen etc.) now complain that the old business model no longer works for them, they have only themselves to blame.

    For the rest of us, be cynically sceptical and trust no-one. Sad.

    5 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Trust????

      Only online? You've never met an broadband sales person on the street/over the phone then...

      2 0 Reply
  6. Terry Cloth
    Headmaster

    Use a dictionary much?

    [A]ccording to the police it "compromises several tactical options, including placing piracy sites on an Infringing Website List (IWL) [....]" [emphasis added]

    So, can I assume this compromise means miscreants can easily dodge the IWL?

    1 0 Reply
  7. Syntax Error

    Tyrants

    What a repressive little country the UK has become. Police working for the intellectual property tyrants.

    UK is really losing its freedom.

    4 0 Reply
    1. cyberdemon Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      Re: Tyrants

      Don't worry: Now that we've "Taken back control", we can, er, lose even more freedom thanks to the regulatory oversight that we won't have in future.

      Chairman May can sell the police, and whatever the f**k she likes to the IP tyrants (and anyone else who's bidding high), in an effort to keep the money flowing round while keeping the proles under control!

      2 1 Reply
      1. P. Lee
        Reply Icon
        Happy

        Re: Tyrants

        >Don't worry: Now that we've "Taken back control", we can, er, lose even more freedom thanks to the regulatory oversight that we won't have in future.

        >Chairman May can sell the police, and whatever the f**k she likes to the IP tyrants (and anyone else who's bidding high), in an effort to keep the money flowing round while keeping the proles under control!

        I don't doubt it, but do you think that wouldn't happen if we centralised more power in Brussels? Just because May is currently doing the wrong thing and Brussels is currently doing the right thing is no reason to alter the balance of power. The smaller the democracy, the more your vote is worth.

        You now have more power than you did. Use it wisely.

        You're welcome!

        0 0 Reply
        1. strum
          Reply Icon

          Re: Tyrants

          > The smaller the democracy, the more your vote is worth.

          The smaller the democracy the easier it is for the powerful to subvert it.

          >You now have more power than you did.

          You now have less representation than you did (and in a less-representative political system).

          0 0 Reply
  8. Scott 26
    Coat

    So using an ad blocker is actually fighting crime????

    0 0 Reply
  9. phuzz Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Nice work from elReg's headline writer(s) yet again :)

    1 0 Reply
  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ah the IWL

    Or as I like to call it "the shady oscars".

    The best thing for warez and porn sites since SEO.

    Id love to see a statistical analysis of web traffic for sites on the list both before and after entering the list.

    0 0 Reply

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