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.
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:
@Brand Stop Supporting Online Music Piracy #StopArtistExploitation http://wp.me/p2hvgt-1xH
@Adobe – https://twitter.com/Adobe
@ADTstaysafe – https://twitter.com/ADTstaysafe
@AlaskaAir – https://twitter.com/AlaskaAir
@amazon – https://twitter.com/amazon
@AmericanExpress – https://twitter.com/AmericanExpress
@ATT – https://twitter.com/ATT
@Audi – https://twitter.com/Audi
@BMWUSA – https://twitter.com/BMWUSA
@bostonmarket – https://twitter.com/bostonmarket
@boyscouts – https://twitter.com/boyscouts
@British_Airways – https://twitter.com/British_Airways
@CENTURY21 – https://twitter.com/CENTURY21
@CharterCom – https://twitter.com/CharterCom
@Citibank – https://twitter.com/Citibank
@MINIUSA – https://twitter.com/MINIUSA
@CoxComm – https://twitter.com/CoxComm
@CrateandBarrel – https://twitter.com/CrateandBarrel
@DirecttTv – https://twitter.com/DirecttTv
@DishSatellite – https://twitter.com/DishSatellite
@eBay – https://twitter.com/eBay
@EA – https://twitter.com/EA
@Air_Emirates – https://twitter.com/Air_Emirates
@FergusonShowrms – https://twitter.com/FergusonShowrms
@Ford – https://twitter.com/Ford
@GoPro – https://twitter.com/GoPro
@googlechrome – https://twitter.com/googlechrome
@HertzCWB – https://twitter.com/HertzCWB
@HP – https://twitter.com/HP
@HiltonHotels – https://twitter.com/HiltonHotels
@HyattPR – https://twitter.com/HyattPR
@Hyundai – https://twitter.com/Hyundai
@JetBlueAirlines – https://twitter.com/JetBlueAirlines
@KAYAK – https://twitter.com/KAYAK
@Kohler – https://twitter.com/Kohler
@LegalZoom – https://twitter.com/LegalZoom
@LGUS – https://twitter.com/LGUS
@MyMMscom – https://twitter.com/MyMMscom
@Macys – https://twitter.com/Macys
@_MarvelAvengers – https://twitter.com/_MarvelAvengers
@MazdaUSA – https://twitter.com/MazdaUSA
@musiciansfriend – https://twitter.com/musiciansfriend
@Nationwide – https://twitter.com/Nationwide
@neimanmarcus – https://twitter.com/neimanmarcus
@netflix – https://twitter.com/netflix
@NissanUSA – https://twitter.com/NissanUSA
@priceline – https://twitter.com/priceline
@PrincessCruises – https://twitter.com/PrincessCruises
@Register_com – https://twitter.com/Register_com
@RejuvenationInc – https://twitter.com/RejuvenationInc
@Sheraton_Hotels – https://twitter.com/Sheraton_Hotels
@Skype – https://twitter.com/Skype
@sprint – https://twitter.com/sprint
@StateFarm – https://twitter.com/StateFarm
@SweetwaterSound – https://twitter.com/SweetwaterSound
@Target – https://twitter.com/Target
@TuneCore – https://twitter.com/TuneCore
@UNITED_AlRLINES – https://twitter.com/UNITED_AlRLINES
@UrbanOutfitters – https://twitter.com/UrbanOutfitters
@VirginAtlantic – https://twitter.com/VirginAtlantic
@Visa – https://twitter.com/Visa
@VW – https://twitter.com/VW
@WHotels – https://twitter.com/WHotels
@WeightWatchers – https://twitter.com/WeightWatchers
@Wendys- https://twitter.com/Wendys
@Westin – https://twitter.com/Westin
@WilliamsSonoma – https://twitter.com/WilliamsSonoma
@Yahoo – https://twitter.com/Yahoo
The Trichordist 
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