USTR 2021 Review of Notorious Markets Response
Objection to the Inclusion of Propeller Ads in the 2021 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy
With reference to the subject above and in relation to recent response of the Motion Pictures Association (MPA) to the request issued August 30, 2021, by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) inviting submissions from the public on notorious markets outside of the United States (the ‘Response’), we hereby indict the inclusion of ad networks and especially of Propeller Ads in the Response.
In specific, we hereby express our direct and absolute opposition to the inclusion of Propeller Ads in a list of various apps, sites, registries, hosting providers, torrent sites, streaming portals, IPTV services, cyberlockers, etc, allegedly being involved in piracy and/or piracy-related content and/or facilitating piracy. We explicitly condemn any and all such negligent acts that publicly defame Propeller Ads with false and invalid accusations suggesting that Propeller Ads is involved in and/or supports piracy or any other type of illegal activity/practice.
In contrast to the statements in the Response, we assure you that Propeller Ads is a legally registered and operated company, its operators and offices being scrutinised and approved by European governmental bodies and hence, we most certainly declare your statements unquestionably wrong, untrue, misplaced and not in any way proved or supported by any valid argument, solely being highly defamatory and malicious to the reputation of Propeller Ads.
Propeller Ads respects the laws of all jurisdictions around the world and is actively involved in the fight against fraudulent or illegal activity, including when appropriate, by terminating business dealings with the relevant infringing parties. It constantly redefines its operations based on international legal standards, it upgrades its policies, licenses and security tools to be stricter, more reliable and resistant, it applies system penetration tests and enhances its technics to detect and prevent malware activities faster than the accepted medium market standards, safeguarding to the highest extend possible the rights of its clients and users worldwide.
Furthermore, Propeller Ads is a company providing the highest quality of advertising services having its utmost priority the respect, safety and protection of its clients and end users rights, this being one of the major reasons it is the daily choice of hundreds of thousands of users. It is a company that develops its own unique models and products and maintains and repeatedly modifies its own information technologies to fulfil the needs of the copyright owners. It keeps its own servers guarded, carefully examines its business co-operators, regularly undergoes internal audits and proudly holds the ISO 27001 Certification which is a reward and proof of all its successful efforts to offer a safe advertising environment to the users and at the same time reinforce the advertising market itself.
Moreover and as we take matters of copyright infringement and online piracy into the highest consideration, by preference and without having any obligation whatsoever, Propeller maintains its own abuse report webpage https://abuse.propellerads.com/, an online accessible tool publicly available for anyone who wishes to report an allegedly copyright infringement incident. Through the online completion and submission of the form anyone can report an infringement of their copyrighted material/intellectual property while providing us all supporting information and documentation to further investigate in detail their case. Nevertheless, Propeller Ads has never received any copyright infringement complaint neither from the Motion Pictures Association or the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE).
Over and above, Propeller Ads has at all times fairly responded to all publications, inquiries, charges, orders and challenges that came across it which may have questioned its provision of services in any way, Motion Pictures Association’s and Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment’s Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris Disclosure Orders included. In the year 2021, Propeller Ads has received multiple such Orders to which it has promptly replied without any exclusion, disclosing all information which was legally allowed to be disclosed. Yet, there is a fine line between complying with a valid legal order and taking action against a client on mere opinions or accusations with no legal valid ground. If not, in the same way, you should identically and ideally in principle similarly blame all minor and major internet service providers and social networks and publicly expose them in your grey list of market players who promote piracy.
Propeller Ads profoundly supports any effort in identifying and combating piracy as also protecting the rights of legal owners. However, it seems to us that MPA’ issue is with the internet itself, its rapid evolution and how it may be used by users in general, hence the lack of adequate reasonable explanation for including Propeller Ads in its list. The fact that Propeller Ads is one of the big players in the advertising market shall not automatically assume that it facilitates copyright infringement. MPA takes the role of a supervisory body judging on mere allegation, damaging our business and the advertising market itself, implying that ad networks enhance illegal activity without having any proof so ever on the subject matter, disregarding the fact that ‘we have established best practices and guidelines to address piracy’ as per your own words. It appears as if its intention is to stop our operations in general rather than fighting copyright infringement itself.