This article originally appeared on Motherboard.London police today announced their latest step in tackling copyright infringement, and they want to hit pirate sites where it hurts: right in the advertising revenue.As it stands, websites that make money off pirated content make millions from showing ads on their sites—$227 million in the past year, according to a report by the Digital Citizens Alliance. That’s a pretty big payoff considering they get the content for free.The City of London Police referenced this report in their announcement, which calls on brands and advertisers to pull their (often inadvertent) financial support of illegal sites. They’re putting together an "Infringing Website List" that will name illegal sites that they say will be identified by rights holders and vetted by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit.The first of its kind, that list will then be available to “advertisers, agencies and other intermediaries” who are encouraged to cease placement of ads on the sites. At the moment, a lot of ads on illegal sites come from recognised premium brands, likely because they buy advertising through middleman sales channels and are unaware of where it ends up. While pirate sites might bring a lot of traffic to the ads, it’s obviously not great to have your big-name brand associated with illegal activity.The police are therefore describing the blacklist as a “safety tool” to help defend companies’ reputations. The unit’s head, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fyfe, said in a statement, “If an advert from an established brand appears on an infringing website not only does it lend the site a look of legitimacy, but inadvertently the brand and advertiser are funding online crime.”They claim that a three-month pilot involving 61 infringing sites saw “a 12% reduction in advertising from major household brands on the identified illegal websites.”I reached out to the PIPCU to ask how many sites were on the list at launch, but was told that they’re not releasing any figures as that will change as more sites are added and others removed when they comply with copyright laws.Talking to the BBC, TorrentFreak editor Ernesto Van Der Sar pointed out the risk of blocking legitimate websites and costing them valuable ad revenue. I asked PIPCU what would happen in this situation, and they said that was an unlikely scenario owing to the long process it takes to get a site on the list (they're apparently notified in advance and so have the chance to go legit).According to a City of London Police spokesperson, “The websites on the IWL go through a robust quality assurance process. Websites are identified to PIPCU by the creative industries who provide the unit with a detailed evidential package indicating how the site is involved in illegal copyright infringement. Officers from PIPCU will then evaluate the websites and verify whether they are infringing.”If relying on advertisers to enforce a deterrent seems a little bit like admitting defeat on trying to actually clamp down on illegal sites themselves, the unit emphasised that the list is just one stage of a broader project, known as Operation Creative. That’s already seen some 60 domain names suspended by registrars.Quite how successful the advertising initiative will be remains to be seen. On the one hand, Van Der Sar argues that enough people will still be willing to advertise on illegal sites and reap those lucrative views and click-throughs that it will have little impact.But the police said their pilot suggested otherwise, writing in a statement that “Adverts that lead the user to sites with explicit adult content or expose them to malware increased by 39% during the pilot, indicating that site owners may struggle to maintain their revenue streams when adverts from established brands are removed.”Given the little cost it takes to run a pirate site, however, even a significant dent in revenue might not be a huge deal. But its bad news, I guess, for visitors who like high quality ads with their ripped digital content.Follow Victoria Turk on Twitter: @VickiTurk
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