UK police try to spook piracy website users with banner ads
See the original posting on The Verge
Would an ominous banner ad be enough to dissuade you from illegally stealing an album or movie? UK authorities are apparently hoping so. The City of London Polices Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) is plastering ads across known piracy websites in an attempt to make users think twice before clicking the download button. “This website has been reported to the police,” reads the ad. “Please close the browser page containing this website.” Authorities partnered with local “creative and advertising industries” to replace regular advertisements with the straightforward warnings.
The ads appear on all sites that’ve been added to PIPCU’s new “Infringing Websites List” (ICL). That list is currently about 70 websites long, a…