Download 4As.ANA-Piracy-Statement

4A’s and ANA Issue Best Practices to Avoid Online Piracy and Counterfeiting
June 12, 2012 – Advertisers should not unintentionally provide financial support to
“rogue” Internet sites that are dedicated to the infringement of the intellectual property of
others and need to have confidence that their corporate brands and images are not being
compromised by association with such unlawful activity, according to a statement of best
practices issued recently by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the
American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s).
“The deceptive practices of these rogue Web sites are unfair both to consumers and the
companies that invest vast resources to establish brand integrity,” said 4A’s PresidentCEO Nancy Hill. “Combatting online piracy and counterfeiting is a key priority for the
entire business community.”
The 4A’s moved forward with the statement of best practices to raise awareness that its
member companies “may have unwittingly supported pirated or rogue sites when using
ad networks,” according to GroupM Interaction Chief Operating Officer John
Montgomery, who also serves as chairman of the 4A’s Privacy Committee.
GroupM – which buys nearly one-third of the world’s media, Montgomery said – blocks
advertising at rogue sites by using verification agencies to identify illegal sites and
attaching a list of those sites to insertion orders which specify that ads not be placed on
those sites. “We want to cut off rogue sites’ funding,” he said.
The 4A’s/ANA statement of best practices takes a similar approach. The groups
encourage their members to address rogue sites that are dedicated to intellectual property
infringement by including specific language in media placement contracts and insertion
orders with ad networks and other intermediaries involved with their U.S.-originated
digital advertising campaigns on both domestic and foreign Internet sites.
The document sets forth the groups’ belief “that our members should each commit to take
affirmative steps to avoid placement of ads on such sites. This commitment is not
intended to foreclose advertising on legitimate social media or user-generated content
sites, even if infringing content occasionally appears on such sites.”
The language the groups suggest that its members adopt includes:
 All such intermediaries shall use commercially reasonable measures to
prevent ads from being places on such sites.
 All such intermediaries shall have and implement commercially reasonable
processes for removing or excluding such sites from their services, and for
expeditiously terminating non-compliant ad placements, in response to
reasonable and sufficiently detailed complaints or notices from rights holders
and advertisers.

All such intermediaries shall refund or credit the advertiser for the fees, costs
and/or value associated with non-compliant ad placements, or provide
alternative remediation.
Even if advertisers include these provisions (or adapt them in a manner appropriate to
their businesses) the ANA and the 4A’s acknowledge that “in the context of a highly
dynamic and complex digital advertising ecosystem” that “inadvertent con-compliant ad
placements will occasionally occur.”
Still, the statement reads, “we should not knowingly allow our businesses and brands to
supply financial life-blood or lend a veneer of legitimacy to fundamentally illicit business
models.”
“Piracy is a widespread problem,” Montgomery said. “We want to encourage our
industry to take a look at this issue and consider taking action.”