50 Major Brands – The Trichordist

Below is a partial list of over 50 major brands who are advertising on pirate sites and therefore supporting not only music piracy, but also the mainstream piracy of films and every other kind of digitally distributed work. As we’ve stated before the content industries may have the ability to address mass scale, enterprise level, commercial infringement without necessarily requiring any new legislation.

What we find frustrating is that the major content companies and corporations must have existing relationships with these brands as the content and media distribution companies own the television networks (at the very least) that these brands are dependent upon for the mass scale and mainstream promotion of their products and services.

The major content companies as well as their well respected institutions such as The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Oscar’s), The National Association Of Recording Arts and Sciences (The Grammy’s) and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (The Golden Globes) all host annual award shows where many of these brands are also advertising. Why isn’t it possible to use that opportunity to educate these brands about the damage they are doing to the creative community? In other words, where are the adults?

What is disappointing is that the same people pushing for new legislative solutions could also be leveraging their relationships with the brands and advertising agencies directly to educate them about the seriousness of this problem. The same goes for the banks and payment processors such as American Express, Master Card, Visa and others. At least one company, Paypal has been very proactive in severing it’s ties and services with illegal and infringing sites, we wish more would to the same.

The US Trade Representative’s list of sites in the Notorious Markets List combined with Google’s transparency report for copyright infringement via legitimate DMCA notices to delist links from its search engine provides a very effective list of sites where no advertising should appear as a simple baseline of “best practices”. (Of course, the Google list does not include YouTube or Blogger.)

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/domains/?r=all-time

Keep in mind the screen shot above only lists the Top 20 sites of the almost 200,000 in total that are receiving DMCA notices for copyright infringement.

Clicking on the name of any of the brands below will take you to a post that contains the screen shot of the ad itself. What is also important to note is what brands are NOT on this list.

Brands like Coke and Pepsi do not seem to appear on pirate sites, and that can’t be an accident anymore than it not being an accident that these other brands do appear on pirate sites. So for that, we applaud Coke and Pepsi for their respect to the creative community.

Who knows, perhaps the content industries should use their might, weight and prestige to create an award for brands who respect the creative community in a public forum that enhances value for the brand by the endorsement of artists, musicians, filmmakers and other creators. Just a thought if anyone is reading…

We might also suggest that the brands on this list think about adopting the Bill of Rights for Online Advertisers by Benjamin Edelman of The Harvard Business School.

Five rights to protect advertisers from increasingly powerful ad networks — avoiding fraudulent charges for services not rendered, guaranteeing data portability so advertisers get the best possible value, and assuring price transparency so advertisers know what they’re buying.

Brand	Pirate Site	Artist
Adobe	Files Tube	Tom Waits
Adobe	Files Tube	30 Seconds To Mars / Jared Leto
Adobe	Torrent Reactor	Neil Young
Adobe	Iso Hunt	Neil Young
Adobe	Kick Ass Torrents	Neil Young
ADT Security	4Shared	Tom Waits
Alaska Air	Iso Hunt	Neil Young
Alaska Air	Kick Ass Torrents	Neil Young
Alaska Airlines	Torrent Reactor	U2
Amazon	4Shared	U2
American Express	4Shared	Adele
American Express Delta Airlines Card	Mp3 Twister	Black Keys
AT&T	Mp3 Twister	Black Keys
AT&T	4Shared	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
AT&T	Mp3Skull	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
AT&T	4Shared	Adele
AT&T	mp3 Skull	U2
AT&T	mp3 Skull	John Mellencamp
AT&T	Kick Ass Torrents	Neil Young
Audi	Mp3Skull	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
BMW	4Shared	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
BMW	Kick Ass Torrents	Tom Waits
Boston Market	4Shared	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
Boy Scouts of America	Torrent Reactor	Neil Young
British Airways	Kick Ass Torrents	Adele
British Airways	Mp3 Crow	Adele
Century 21	4Shared	U2
Charmin Toilet Paper	Iso Hunt	Neil Young
Charter Cable	mp3 Raid	U2
Citi Bank	4Shared	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
Citi Bank	4shared	John Mellencamp
Cooper Mini (BMW)	Files Tube	Neil Young
Cox Cable	4Shared	John Mellencamp
Crate & Barrel	Files Tube	U2
Direct TV	Kick Ass Torrents	Neil Young
Dish Network	Mp3 Twister	Black Keys
Ebay	Kick Ass Torrents	Neil Young
Electronic Arts Need for Speed	Mp3 bear	Neko Case
Emirates Airlines	Files Tube	30 Seconds To Mars / Jared Leto
Ferguson	Kick Ass Torrents	Talib Kweli
Ford	Files Tube	30 Seconds To Mars / Jared Leto
Ford	Files Tube	Neil Young
Go Pro	Files Tube	30 Seconds To Mars / Jared Leto
Google Chrome	Mp3 Juices	Talib Kweli
Hertz Rent A Car	4Shared	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
Hewlett Packard	Files Tube	Neil Young
Hewlett Packard	Mp3 Skull	U2
Hewlett Packard	Files Tube	U2
Hewlett Packard	Mp3 Skull	U2
Hewlett Packard	h33t	U2
Hilton	4shared	Tom Waits
Hyatt	4Shared	Tom Waits
Hyundai	Mp3Skull	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
Jet Blue	h33t	U2
Kayak	h33t	U2
Kohler	Kick Ass Torrents	Talib Kweli
Legal Zoom	Iso Hunt	Neil Young
Levi’s	Mp3 Bear	Neko Case
LG	Files Tube	30 Seconds To Mars / Jared Leto
LG	Files Tube	Neil Young
LG	Files Tube	Tom Waits
M&M’s (Mars)	Share Beast	Black Keys
Macy’s	Mp3 bear	Neko Case
Marvel Avengers Alliance	Mp3 Bear	Neko Case
Mazda	Mp3Raid	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
Mini Cooper (BMW)	Files Tube	Tom Waits
Mitt Romeny	4Shared	Tom Waits
Movie 43 (Relativity Media)	Mp3 Boo	Black Keys
Musicians Friend	4Shared	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
Nationwide Insurance	MediaFire Mp3	Aimee Mann
Neiman Marcus	Mp3Skull	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
Neiman Marcus	Mp3 Juices	Talib Kweli
Netflix	Mp3 Skull	John Mellencamp
Nissan	Mp3 Boo	Black Keys
Nissan	Mp3 Take	Adele
Nissan	MP3 Ape	Adele
Priceline	4Shared	Tom Waits
Princess Cruises	Files Tube	Neil Young
Princess Cruises	Mp3 Bear	Neko Case
Register.Com	Kick Ass Torrents	Talib Kweli
Rejuvenation	Files Tube	U2
Sheraton Hotels	mp3 Skull	U2
Sheraton Hotels	4Shared	U2
Skype	Mp3 bear	Neko Case
Sprint	Torrent Reactor	U2
State Farm Insurance	Mp3 Crank	Tom Waits
State Farm Insurance	Torrent Reactor	U2
State Farm Insurance	Kick Ass Torrents	Talib Kweli
State Farm Insurance	Torrent Reactor	Neil Young
State Farm Insurance	Iso Hunt	Neil Young
State Farm Insurance	Kick Ass Torrents	Neil Young
State Farm Insurance	Mp3 Skull	U2
State Farm Insurance	4Shared	John Mellencamp
State Farm Insurance	Mp3 Skull	U2
Sweetwater	4Shared	John Mellencamp
Target	Mp3Skull	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
Target	MP3 Ape	Adele
Target	Kick Ass Torrents	Neil Young
Target	Mp3 Crank	Tom Waits
Target	Files Tube	30 Seconds To Mars / Jared Leto
Tunecore	4Shared	John Mellencamp
United Airlines	mp3 Bear	U2
United Airlines	Files Tube	U2
United Airlines	h33t	U2
Urban Outfitters	4Shared	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
Urban Outfitters	Files Tube	Tom Waits
Urban Outfitters	mp3 skull	U2
Virgin Atlantic	IsoHunt	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
Visa	Mp3 Crank	Tom Waits
Volkswagen	Files Tube	30 Seconds To Mars / Jared Leto
W Hotels	4Shared	John Mellencamp
Weight Watchers	4Shared	Tom Waits
Wendy’s	Kick Ass Torrents	Tom Waits
Westen Hotels	Kick Ass Torrents	Neil Young
Westin Hotels	Kick Ass Torrents	Tom Waits
Westin Hotels	4Shared	U2
Westin Hotels	mp3 Raid	U2
Westin Hotels	4Shared	John Mellencamp
Williams Sonoma	IsoHunt	Smashing Pumpkins / Billy Corgan
Yahoo	Mp3 Bear	Neko Case
Yahoo	Dilandau	Tom Waits

Remember all change is local, and you vote with dollars. If we don’t take action directly ourselves we can’t really blame others. These brands are paying the pirate sites to give away your music (directly or indirectly). One tweet a day to any of these brands is all it takes to start building awareness.

You, yes you, can make a difference. Which of these brands do you support with your money? Let them know you don’t want your money, that you pay to them, being used to promote online music piracy and artist exploitation.

We’re going to be tweeting a brand a day starting tomorrow. Retweet us if you like.

Here’s a directory of the brands on Twitter. Please feel free to copy/paste this simple suggested tweet to them: