London Police to Revamp ‘Infringing Website List’ Portal with a £220K Investment

• The London Police’s decade-old database of pirate sites is set to get a fresh start via a huge investment.
• Infringing Website List reportedly prevented £6 million in ad revenue from listed sites, but comprehensive public data is not available to back up these reports.
• The revamping contract, valued at over £221,000, was secured by Calvium Limited.

The City of London Police is set to revamp its decade-old database of pirate sites as part of Operation Creative, an initiative spearheaded by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU). Launched in 2014, this multi-agency effort aims to combat intellectual property crime, predominantly targeting overseas pirate sites.

The new development comes after a competitive bidding process, with Bristol-based Calvium Limited securing the contract valued at over £221,000. This investment, funded by the U.K. public purse, marks a pivotal upgrade to the Infringing Website List (IWL) portal, which serves as a resource for advertisers and industry stakeholders to identify and avoid doing business with infringing sites.

Despite its decade-long operation, little public information is available on the effectiveness and reach of Operation Creative. The IWL has reportedly prevented £6 million in ad revenue from flowing to listed sites, but without comprehensive public data, the true impact on these platforms remains uncertain. 

Some platforms, such as soccer365 and well-known torrent sites, appear to persist despite their inclusion on the list and ongoing enforcement measures.

The IWL contains the domains of some very large sites that rely on revenue obtained by diverting some users of those sites to phishing platforms impersonating other brands, which collect social media and other credentials.

Notably, servers connected to that activity have U.K. IP addresses, and some domains on the IWL suspiciously divert to exactly the same website.

However, the lack of publicly accessible metrics continues to hinder a full evaluation of its success. More than 8,130 domains have appeared on the list since its inception, underscoring the scale and complexity of the anti-piracy battle.

For industry stakeholders, the refreshed portal promises to provide improved resources and insights, fostering a collaborative approach to protect intellectual property in the digital age.

Recently, Google surpassed 10 billion takedown requests for reported pirate websites that appeared in the search engine’s results.