Advertising company blacklisted for distributing advertisements to pirated sites fights back as 'defamation'
Just as the operators and users of pirated sites are sued for copyright infringement, companies that distribute advertisements that are the source of funding for pirated sites are also targets of lawsuits. In October 2023, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) classified the advertising company PropellerAds as a 'notorious advertising marketplace,' and found that PropellerAds said, 'MPA's certification is baseless and defamatory. It is reported that he strongly criticized the MPA, saying, 'This is defamation.'
PropellerAds Labels MPA's Piracy Claims 'Harassment' and 'Defamation' * TorrentFreak
Around mid-October 2023, the MPA submitted a ``list of notorious foreign copyright infringement markets'' to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) , an agency established within the Office of the President of the United States with diplomatic negotiation powers. has been submitted. The list includes problematic torrent sites, IPTV services, and pirated apps, with the second half of the letter focusing on intermediaries involved in pirated sites such as hosting providers, advertising services, and domain name registries. I am.
PropellerAds, which was included in the list sent to USTR, is a leading online advertising business with over 1 billion monthly impressions and over 30,000 active advertisers. Although many of PropellerAds' business partners are legitimate companies, MPA believes that there are also malicious companies. According to MPA, PropellerAds is used by many pirated sites as advertising revenue, generating hundreds of millions of yen in revenue.
In the letter, the MPA said, ``According to Digital Citizens Alliance (DCA) research, PropellerAds is one of the largest sources of malvertising, which distributes malware through malicious
In response to the MPA's claims, PropellerAds told the USTR, ``There is no basis for determining that PropellerAds is or must be involved in copyright infringement.'' 'MPA's claims that it is funding the organization are not only factually incorrect, but also legally baseless and defamatory.' PropellerAds claims that it only serves billions of ads through its platform as an intermediary between advertisers and publishers, and that it has no control over what is served on its clients' sites. , nor do they endorse or support the content.
It also cited several past precedents, saying, ``In stark contrast to the MPA's suggestion that advertising services are complicit in copyright infringement occurring on particular sites, American courts have 'We specifically find that ad networks are not responsible for publishers' infringing activities. In this intermediary role, we believe we are not responsible for potentially problematic content.' doing.
In its rebuttal, PropellerAds' claims have become increasingly aggressive, publicly rejecting the data analysis methods MPA relies on as 'reckless, unfounded, inaccurate, and misleading.' 'MPA's reliance on specific analytical methods is due to reprehensible and self-serving financial ties,' it said. The MPA is also pressuring third-party intermediaries through the USTR, contending that this is likely to be considered harassment and defamation.
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