FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 27, 2014

LOS ANGELES – Yesterday, in a letter addressed to representatives of the three major advertising associations, members from across the creative community commended advertisers for their recent pledge to do more to prevent the flow of ad dollars to pirate sites.

CreativeFuture Executive Director Ruth Vitale was joined in signing the letter by Peter Baxter, Alec Berg, Paul Brooks, Bruce Cohen, Martha De Laurentiis, Cedering Fox, Dave Goetsch, Kevin Goetz, Lisa Henson, Marshall Herskovitz, Lynette Howell, Gale Anne Hurd, Dan Jinks, Ken Kamins, Jon Kilik, Hawk Koch, John Krokidas, Spike Lee, Michael London, Rob Long, Craig Mazin, Gavin Polone, Anthony and Joe Russo, Lloyd Segan, Kurt Sutter, Alex Tse, and Joana Vicente.

In April, lawmakers on Capitol Hill first wrote to the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), urging more action on the problem of ad-supported piracy.

Last Thursday, June 19, the advertisers responded detailing steps currently underway.

The full letter released today is below:

June 26, 2014

Dan Jaffe
Executive Vice President
Association of National Advertisers
2020 K St., NW, Suite 660
Washington, DC 20006

Dick O’Brien
Executive Vice President
American Association of Advertising Agencies
1707 L Street, NW, Suite #600
Washington, DC 20036

Mike Zaneis
Executive Vice President & General Counsel
Interactive Advertising Bureau
575 7th St., NW (in the Terrell Place Building)
Washington, DC 20004

Dear Messrs. Jaffe, O’Brien, and Zaneis,

We are writing to thank you for the progress you have made in addressing the exploitative practices used by some in the online advertising marketplace, including the diversion of advertising to websites engaged in piracy.

Your pledge to act to reduce digital piracy is commendable. In your June 19 letter to the Co-Chairs of the International Creativity and Theft-Prevention Caucus, you highlighted the “Core Criteria for Effective Digital Advertising Assurance” that you are developing, as well as the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s recently announced “Trustworthy Digital Supply Chain Initiative”. We believe these are the kinds of industry-led voluntary actions that can most effectively take the profit out of piracy.

CreativeFuture is a broad-based coalition of more than 250 film and television companies and organizations – including independent production and financing companies, unions, guilds, talent agencies, management companies, and business groups – as well as leading members of the creative community. Together, we are working to encourage and support meaningful actions, like those you have proposed, that will encourage a safe and secure internet on which the value of creative content is preserved.

As you have recognized, associating with piracy threatens your business and the value of the brands you serve. Pirate sites also severely undermine creative industries and the overall creative economy. As you know, usage of illegal pirate sites continues to grow. These sites exploit brands and the entire online advertising ecosystem – often generating millions of dollars in profits for organizations dedicated to digital theft.

We appreciate past efforts by the advertising industry to reduce piracy, but also agree with you that more needs to be done. Legitimate advertisers often find themselves unwittingly supporting these sites with their ad dollars. Piracy jeopardizes the rights of all creative individuals, puts jobs at risk, and undermines innovative online distribution services.

We especially applaud your cross-industry effort to incorporate technical tools that are now available to help advertisers prevent ads from appearing on for-profit pirate sites and stem the flow of ad revenue to pirate site operators. As you suggest, standardizing industry best practices – coupled with this technology – will allow companies to vastly improve their existing efforts.

We believe these actions can help promote a vibrant commercial marketplace for online creative content. They are also a model for the type of voluntary action and increased cooperation that is needed among the major players in the internet ecosystem. We appreciate your leadership in improving the advertising supply chain – and we stand available to help in any way.

We offer our support and urge you to begin implementing your initiative as soon as practicable.

Sincerely,

Ruth Vitale
Executive Director, CreativeFuture

On behalf of CreativeFuture and our creative community:

Peter Baxter
Alec Berg
Paul Brooks
Bruce Cohen
Martha De Laurentiis
Cedering Fox
Dave Goetsch
Kevin Goetz
Lisa Henson
Marshall Herskovitz
Lynette Howell
Gale Anne Hurd
Dan Jinks
Ken Kamins
Jon Kilik
Hawk Koch
John Krokidas
Spike Lee
Michael London
Rob Long
Craig Mazin
Gavin Polone
Anthony and Joe Russo
Lloyd Segan
Kurt Sutter
Alex Tse
Joana Vicente

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About CreativeFuture
CreativeFuture is a broad-based coalition of more than 250 film and television companies and organizations – including independent production and financing companies, unions, guilds, talent agencies, management companies, and business groups – as well as leading members of the creative community.

CreativeFuture promotes the value of creativity in today’s digital age. We embrace expanded audience access to content in ways that reward creativity and hard work. We are united in opposition to for-profit theft of creative works, which jeopardizes the rights of all creative individuals, puts jobs at risk, and undermines new business models and distribution platforms. Our mission is to empower the creative community to speak with one collective and powerful voice – advancing a positive, dynamic vision of a digital future that better serves audiences and artists alike.

Contact: Chris Ortman, Communications Director, press@creativefuture.org.