Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ADVERTISING NEWS: Ad networks’ best practices aim at cutting revenue to infringing sites, White House says, (Jul 17, 2013)
Organizations Mentioned:1st Franklin Financial Corp. | Google, Inc. | Interactive Advertising Bureau | Microsoft Corp. | Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. | Public Knowledge | Yahoo, Inc.
By Lynn Stanton,TRDaily
Several companies that operate online ad networks, including Google, Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Yahoo, Inc., have reached agreement on and committed to a set of industry best practices that give intellectual property (IP) rights holders a path for lodging complaints about infringing websites and that could lead to removal of those sites from the revenue stream of the ad networks, U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel announced in a July 15 blog post.
Other parties that committed to the best practices were 24/7 Media, Adtegrity, AOL, Condé Nast, and SpotXchange, Ms. Espinel said. The Interactive Advertising Bureau supported the effort, she said.
“The Administration strongly supports voluntary efforts by the private sector to reduce infringement and we welcome the initiative brought forward by the companies to establish industry-wide standards to combat online piracy and counterfeiting by reducing financial incentives associated with infringement. We believe that this is a positive step and that such efforts can have a significant impact on reducing online piracy and counterfeiting,” Ms. Espinel said.
“We encourage the companies participating to continue to work with all interested stakeholders, including creators, rightholders, and public interest groups, to ensure that their practices are transparent and fully consistent with the democratic values that have helped the Internet to flourish. We also encourage other participants in the online advertising space to consider adopting voluntary initiatives that protect ad networks, publishers, advertisers, creators, rightholders, and above all, consumers,” she added.
Under the best practices, a rights holder is supposed to first notify the website of the alleged “illegitimate activity” (that is, the sale of counterfeit goods and/or copyright piracy) before lodging a complaint with the ad network. Notice to the ad network should include specific URLs where the alleged illegitimate activity occurs; evidence of both the illegitimate activity and advertising network, such as a screen shot; and a copy of the notice to the website; “a statement under penalty of perjury that the person submitting the notice has a good faith belief that the Illegitimate Activity is not authorized by the rights holder, its agent, or the law … that the person submitting the notice owns the copyright or trademark … [or] is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.”
Under the best practices, ad networks may “consider any credible evidence provided by the accused website that it is not principally dedicated to selling counterfeit goods or engaging in copyright piracy or has substantial non-infringing uses. … In addition, Ad Networks may also consider any response by the rights holder to credible evidence provided by the accused website in defense of its conduct.”
In a statement, Laura Covington, vice president–IP policy at Yahoo, said, “We are dedicated to maintaining high quality standards for advertisers and publishers. We prohibit publishers in our ad networks from selling counterfeit goods or engaging in copyright piracy. Ultimately, we want to create and maintain a healthy online space, promote innovation, and protect intellectual property. The best practices we have committed to will help all of us get there.”
“Many of the best practices guidelines very much mirror what we have been doing all along at AOL and, consequently, we quickly supplemented our current practice and are now in compliance with the best practices,” said Dave Jacobs, senior VP–publisher sales at AOL Networks.
“Under these best practices, ad networks will maintain and post policies prohibiting websites that are principally dedicated to selling counterfeit goods or engaging in copyright piracy from participating in the ad network’s advertising programs. By working across the industry, these best practices should help reduce the financial incentives for pirate sites by cutting off their revenue supply while maintaining a healthy Internet and promoting innovation,” said Susan Molinari, VP–public policy and government relations at Google.
“As both a creator of copyrighted works and a provider of online services, including advertising services, Microsoft understands the problems faced by copyright owners subject to massive infringement and the need to ensure that innovation can flourish online. It’s been our experience that a notice-and-takedown mechanism like the one envisioned by these best practices can be an effective means to address online infringement. An appropriate notice-and-takedown system—that requires rights holders to identify specific instances of infringement and online services to respond promptly and appropriately to such notices—can address infringement while still respecting critical values such as fair use, privacy, free speech and the freedom to innovate,” said Fred Humphries, VP–U.S. government affairs at Microsoft.
In a joint statement the co-chairs of the Congressional Internet Anti-Piracy Caucus said, “American creators and innovators need responsible partners in the fight against online piracy and counterfeiting. Both the public and private sectors have an important role to play. Today’s announcement by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and some of the world’s leading online advertising networks that they’ve adopted new voluntary best practices to combat the flow of revenue to websites engaged in the online theft of intellectual property is, accordingly, welcome news.”
The lawmakers added, “For years, the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus (IAPC) has encouraged voluntary private sector efforts to protect consumers and to combat online theft. Today’s advertising network announcement follows previous commitments by advertising buyers, advertising agencies and payment processors that enhance the ability to combat online theft. In the months ahead, the IAPC will continue to monitor the situation to determine if these voluntary best practices are actually helping to reduce the flow of revenue to those engaged in online theft.”
The caucus co-chairs are Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) and Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) and Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R., Va.) and Adam Schiff (D., Calif.).
Chris Dodd, chairman and chief executive officer of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc., applauded the announcement while saying it does not go far enough. “The presence of advertisements by well-known brands on rogue web sites that illegally distribute movies and television shows creates the false impression that such sites are legitimate, fostering consumer confusion and harm. It also funds criminal enterprises and harms legitimate creators and distributers. The announcement today is recognition by online advertising networks of the important role they play to help ensure a safe and secure Internet for all,” Mr. Dodd said.
“However,” Mr. Dodd added, “an incremental step forward that addresses only a narrow subset of the problem and places a disproportionate amount of the burden on rights holders is not sufficient. Absent meaningful proactive steps by players in every sector—advertisers, ad agencies, ad placement services, online ad exchanges and rights holders—the results will be similarly incremental. It is our hope that all parties will work together and build upon today's announcement. We encourage the administration to continue its leadership and convene a meaningful and transparent multi-stakeholder process, with a goal of developing a comprehensive and effective response to significantly reduce the presence of legitimate advertising on illegal Internet sites.”
Mr. Dodd noted that MPAA’s www.wheretowatch.org site provides information “to help audiences find the movies and TV shows they love online legally and easily.”
In a statement, Public Knowledge President and CEO Gigi Sohn said that that the best practices announced today seek “to balance Internet users’ free speech, privacy and fair use rights with content owners desire to protect their copyrights. What the document also highlights is the need for rightsholders to develop best practices of their own—half of the document is devoted to setting out the form and structure for effective notices of infringement from rightsholders, providing the information needed for the parties to work together. This is far preferable to having the ad networks engage in guesswork that can have unintended consequences for users.”
Ms. Sohn added, “There now exist separate sets of best practices for payment processors and ad networks, as well as a copyright alert system which places much of the responsibility on Internet service providers. It is now time for the content community to develop its own set of best practices to ensure that rights of internet users and intermediaries are protected in their efforts to enforce their copyrights. The administration should encourage these rightsholders best practices with as much enthusiasm as they have for best practices for intermediaries.”
Companies: Google, Inc.; Interactive Advertising Bureau; Microsoft Corp.; Yahoo, Inc.
News: Advertising