The fight against online piracy is taking a new form under the auspices of the City of London Police, which has begun displaying warning advertisements on pirated websites.
TorrentFreak reports that the London police's special unit dealing with online piracy (Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit – PIPCU) has taken another measure to combat online piracy, replacing advertisements on websites that infringe copyright with warning messages.
"This website has been reported to the police. Please close the browser page containing this website," read police messages appearing on various websites, as illustrated in the screenshot below provided to the BBC by PIPCU.
“This new initiative is another step forward for the unit in tackling intellectual property crime and disrupting illicit profits,” says PIPCU chief executive Andy Fyfe.
"Websites that infringe copyrights earn huge amounts of money through advertising, and therefore, disrupting advertising on these sites is vital," he adds.
The authorities, as part of the Operation Creative program, are educating citizens about copyright and the protection of the rights of content creators. They are also informing advertisers on how to keep their ads away from torrent sites, since advertising revenue is the only thing that supports this type of website.
For this specific program, the police are using ProjectSunblock technology, which is used to identify pirated content and promote warning advertisements on pirated websites.
