While the fight against piracy on the internet often feels like a fool’s errand, there’s one surefire way to affect those attempting to circumvent the rules: Turn off the money hose.
Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), a non-profit created by the global advertising industry to fight ad-related crime, says it’s pushed to deprive almost 1,400 illegal World Cup streaming sites of their advertising revenue.
That move comes days after the U.S. Department of Justice seized nearly 400 sites streaming pirated World Cup content as part of its “Operation Offsides” campaign.
“Global sporting events like the World Cup are prime targets for criminals who try to intercept legitimate ad dollars by stealing popular streaming content,” said TAG chief operating officer Rachel Nyswander Thomas. “The TAG AdSec Threat Exchange has created as an early-warning system to identify and block ad revenue to websites that are profiting from stolen content, and this first-of-its-kind initiative allows us to fight those criminals in near-real time by cutting off the flow of ad dollars to the content thieves targeting the World Cup.”
TAG was created by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), and works with companies to fight criminal activity and increase trust in the digital advertising industry.
The DOJ’s efforts, led by the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Centre and drawing on intelligence from FIFA, beIN Media Group, Warner Brothers and other leading rights-holders, resulted in the shutdown of servers and domains linked to illegal streaming in Peru and Bulgaria, while additional disruptions took place in Croatia, Romania, Poland, and Colombia.
“We have seized hundreds of domains used to illegally stream World Cup matches for profit, to disrupt the international networks that profit from the global popularity of the World Cup,” said DOJ Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva. “This operation illustrates the department’s respect for intellectual property rights and the responsibility of the United States as a host nation to protect the FIFA World Cup from criminals.”
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.