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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday December 11 2018, @11:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the what's-next? dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Three Sentenced For Placing Advertising on Pirate Sites - TorrentFreak

While there are several business models that are able to keep pirate sites up and running, advertising is one of the most popular.

With huge amounts of traffic landing on both torrent and streaming platforms, even with low-quality adverts it’s possible for both site owners and advertising companies to generate decent profits.

Until now, pirate site operators have been the main targets for law enforcement agencies but a recently concluded case in Germany shows that the authorities are prepared to extend their reach when required.

According to Germany-based anti-piracy group GVU, the Leipzig District Court has now sentenced three employees of an Internet advertising agency to prison terms for aiding and abetting copyright infringement.

The investigation was led by the Integrated Investigation Unit Saxony (INES) at the Saxon Attorney General’s Office and supported by the GVU with analysis and insights.

“The defendants had brokered advertising space on well-known piracy portals such as kino.to or iload.to and displayed lucrative banner ads on a large scale,” GVU reveals.

“In this way, they achieved profits of more than 350,000 euros. They were aware that they were involved with structurally infringing sites, which apparently offered almost exclusively copyrighted files for download and streaming.”

The sentences for the trio were considerable, despite not being directly involved in the running of the sites. The manager of the agency received a sentence of one year and eight months, with two programmers each receiving one year and four months in prison. However, since the defendants confessed, all sentences were suspended.

“The verdict sets a significant precedent because up to now no advertising agency in Germany has ever been prosecuted for its support of illegal portal sites,” GVU concludes.


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  • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday December 11 2018, @12:36PM (4 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Tuesday December 11 2018, @12:36PM (#772834) Journal

    This sure looks like lawyers and IP owners seeing a large pile of money and an opening, and deciding to go for it. Smaller fish aren't pursued, not because they are any less culpable, but because they aren't worth enough.

    Doesn't seem that the advertisers did anything wrong. Should they have to judge their customers? Is a gas station owner liable if bank robbers refuel their getaway vehicle at one of his stations?

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @01:51PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @01:51PM (#772849)

    If the gas station owner knew they were bank robbers on the way to a bank robbery, and yet willingly allowed them to fill their escape car at his gas station, then yes, I think he's liable (IANAL, however).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @05:57PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @05:57PM (#772965)

      Okay, that's your opinion. Try to think it as far as it goes and see if any problems with that viewpoint arise.

      No matter what. I'm interested in knowing which law applies in the case of these advertisement brokers.

    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:16PM

      by Freeman (732) on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:16PM (#773088) Journal

      No, but if the Gas Station owner, knew there was a certain banker robber clientele and setup advertisements for them specifically. Sure, I might could see them being culpable. How hard is it to not sell your advertisements on "The Pirate Bay" or whatever is trendy in the "Pirate" world? Pirate sites would be easily crushed, without advertisement funding. So, the real fight is between the MPAA/RIAA and Advertising Agencies. Though, perhaps, "Pirate" sites are easily funded by others without Advertisements? I really don't know how costly it would be to run a site like that and / or the level of interest from your average "Pirate." My thoughts on the whole issue are summed up in "the path of least resistance and poor people with internet." Generally, if you charge a nominal fee for a service, people will pay for it. I would hold up Netflix as that poster child as far as videos are concerned. On the other side we have Comcast, Dish, DirecTV, etc. Their math isn't realy math.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 1) by easyTree on Wednesday December 12 2018, @12:12AM

      by easyTree (6882) on Wednesday December 12 2018, @12:12AM (#773199)

      The 'gas' station owner has no responsibility to police the rest of society. They sell people 'gas.'