Twitch.tv is About to Get Placed On a WIPO Anti-Piracy Blacklist

[shamu726]

Japan and Ukraine are the latest countries to sign agreements with the World Intellectual Property Organization in an effort to keep advertising off pirate sites. The notable factor here is that Ukraine is the first country to reveal which sites rightsholders have blacklisted. Among them are Amazon-owned Twitch and US-based streaming platform Veoh.

 

 

Keeping advertising off pirate sites has become one of the key goals of entertainment industry and anti-piracy groups.

 

The theory is that if brands can be encouraged not to place their ads alongside infringing content, pirate sites will be starved of much-needed revenue.

 

To achieve this goal, various coalitions have created their own pirate site ‘blacklists’ so that known pirate players can be screened out as potential advertising partners.

WIPO ALERT Database

Initially named BRIP (Building Respect for Intellectual Property), the United Nation’s World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) now operates a system known as WIPO ALERT. Founded in 2017 and with early contributions from Italian telecom regulator AGCOM and KCOPA, the Korea Copyright Protection Agency, WIPO ALERT aims to collate national advertising blacklists into one big database.

 

Last week we reported that Russia had thrown its weight behind the project, signing a memorandum of understanding to add its own database of infringing domains to the WIPO ALERT database.

Japan and Ukraine Announce Support For WIPO ALERT

Japan-based anti-piracy group CODA has now revealed that on September 23, 2020, it too signed an agreement with WIPO, joining Italy, South Korea, Brazil, Spain, and Russia in the program. The difference in CODA’s case, however, is that while the other countries’ databases are run by governments, the Japanese anti-piracy group is the first contributor from the private sector.

 

At the same time as announcing its membership, CODA revealed that Ukraine had also signed an agreement to integrate its advertising blacklists into the WIPO system. The country’s ‘Clear Sky’ anti-piracy initiative confirmed the news, noting that the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture had signed a memorandum of understanding with WIPO.

 

“Today there are more than 1,500 such [infringing] resources on our list. We are delighted that WIPO has initiated a similar project at the international level,” said Vyacheslav Mienko, head of the ‘Clear Sky’ initiative.

 

“Ukraine, represented by the Ministry of Economy, joined the project, and this gives us the opportunity to declare our resources to the WIPO list, containing claims from Ukrainian rightholders. We are confident that the international status of such a list will create additional motivation for the advertising market to control the placement of advertising.”

Surprise Transparency From Ukraine With Predictable Results

As we mentioned last week, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with advertisers wanting to keep their ads off piracy portals. That being said, with no country prepared to publish its blacklists in public, it’s impossible to examine those lists for errors, blunders, or questionable entries. Surprisingly, Ukraine changes all that.

 

Via its Blacklists.org.ua website, Ukraine helpfully provides a Google spreadsheet of all its blacklisted sites, i.e platforms rightsholders feel shouldn’t carry advertising from responsible companies so should be boycotted.

 

In the main, Ukraine’s list is a fairly uncontroversial read, with various rightsholders complaining about hundreds of known torrent and streaming portals that are clearly engaged in mass distribution of unlicensed content. However, when taking a really close look, there are sites on the list that will raise eyebrows.

Twitch.tv Set to Be Blacklisted by the WIPO ALERT System?

At the time of writing there are around 1,300 alleged ‘pirate’ sites in the list but as the screenshot below reveals, not all is well.

 

 

At position 1098 we can clearly see Amazon-owned Twitch.tv, a platform offering video game live streaming, broadcasts of Esports competitions, and sundry other streams.

 

While Twitch isn’t immune to copyright-infringements carried out by a minority of its users, in this database it’s clearly labeled as a problematic platform that shouldn’t be advertised on. The site’s responsiveness to DMCA takedown notices seems to been pushed aside.

 

The text in blue is a reference to the entity that reported Twitch to the blacklist, in this case the Ukrainian Anti-Piracy Association. Quite why this anti-piracy group has an issue with Twitch is unclear but given the fact that the list is about to be ported over to the WIPO to advise rightsholders internationally, Amazon might have a problem on its hands.

US-based Streaming Platform Veoh.com Also Blacklisted

Further down the list is another interesting entry, US-based streaming platform Veoh. The site was placed there following complaints from anti-piracy company 1+1Media but exactly why remains a mystery. Veoh has a strict copyright policy that not only removes infringing content but also terminates repeat infringers.

 

As a major contributor to the Ukrainian blacklist, which will soon form part of WIPO ALERT, no reasons are given for any of the hundreds of platforms 1+1Media has recommended for an advertising boycott. However, if people do have any complaints, they must direct their issues to the anti-piracy company contributors themselves. Clear Sky says that listings are not their responsibility.

 

Finally, there are a significant number of sites submitted to the blacklist by Getty Images. After checking a few at random it appears most are news sites which presumably used Getty’s photographs without permission. While that’s still infringement, these are certainly not pirate sites in the traditional sense.

 

That raises the question of where the red lines are drawn and whether any sites, not just obvious ‘pirate’ platforms, are at risk of being placed on these lists at the whim of an anti-piracy company or copyright holder.

Exactly Why Transparency is Needed

As mentioned earlier, Ukraine is the only country thus far to make its blacklist public and for that, it should be commended. While there some questionable entries, including very significant ones, it is this kind of transparency that will contribute to making more accurate lists that achieve their stated goals.

 

Whether WIPO will go down the same route with a published list of its own is unclear but if there’s a chance that blunders like the inclusion of Twitch and Veoh will get noticed, it should be worth considering. The alternative could be a mysterious fall in ad revenue for platforms that have absolutely no idea what is going on, despite complying with all relevant laws.

 

 

Source: TorrentFreak

[steven36]

How far they think there  going to  get ?  They have 2 problems  1. Amazon  owns  Twitch and are part of ACE  so they done bit off more than they can chew.  They can  blacklist  the Ukraine and Japan  and  bye bye firesticks , Bluray  ,DVD and digital releases from them. Twitch is just there gaming streaming site  for creators . They  also  own Amazon Prime Video that makes there own TV Shows  and Movies  plus they have deals to sell TV Shows and movies for the others when the rest don't Hollywood based, they also have free streaming  service Hollywood based on IMDB  ,They a really big player they own  were people go to look up info  on movies as well. 2.Amazon makes there own ads  they make billions a year  of them  there Big Tech  and have there own AD Tech company. There  not dealing with some cheap WordPress  piracy blog .There CEO is the richest man in the world. Well  at lest the richest one  on public  record. They a debate  that some that keep there wealth private that involved  with crime have the most money. But there no way to know because there too  powerful to touch.

 

That's like  going after YouTube  that owned by Google  the biggest AD Tech company in the world. If Amazon decides  to take on Google and Facebook  they could shrink them to the size of Yahoo they eat  Companies  for lunch . they just can stick some Amazon ads on Twitch and when consumers go there and buy it they get paid Twice . it's like IMDB they advertise stuff  on Amazon because   Amazon  owns them  your dealing with a big monopoly not some site buying ads from the UK  because Google ban them.   

 

 

Quote

Marketers have been flocking to the streaming platform for games, and now they can get help from Amazon to place their ads

https://adage.com/article/digital/how-brands-can-work-twitch-amazon-makes-its-mark/2286301

 

Amazon opens Twitch to brands running campaigns through its ad platform

https://adage.com/article/digital/amazon-opens-twitch-brands-running-campaigns-through-its-ad-platform/2280506

 

If these countries block there  ads it will just end up like YouTube were the person  monetizing  will block  that country  .  But ads  are not the only way .

 

Twitch ads are one of 5 ways for streamers to make money on Twitch

https://madskil.com/streaming-academy/monetization/how-twitch-ads-work-and-how-much-do-streamers-make-from-ads/

 

Is like  many pirate sites say  if there only  source of income was ads they would not still be going. Only videos that have ads on  Twitch  is because people  chose   to use this method.

 

Ads being  blacklisted is more conman than you  think  I have  a iptv  app  were from India   the ads dont work as long i use a  USA ip.

 

See  the part of the app that  popup the ads just be blank  with  the USA  ip  but   if i change to other countries  they be ads but it's not  annoying   because the  app lets you close out the popup.

 

 

That one of the perks  of using Linux  ads don't scare  us like  it does  windows users  most  malware  in ads  wont run  in Linux the ads  work  but the malware dont. 

[halvgris]

amazon has larger problems with its region locked video streaming same price less value unless you are in the us of course. nothing they mention upon signup but certainly in the toc.

 

why vould i subscribe to a service when i still need to download american content elsewhere?.