FAST launches groundbreaking online anti-piracy initiative

FAST, champion of legal software use, has launched a successful online anti-piracy campaign on behalf of its member Primal Pictures, which is set to be the benchmark for future such initiatives in the UK.

The trial project, undertaken to identify the revenue loss to Primal Pictures by online piracy was a two stage programme focusing on Product Piracy Takedowns (PPT) and Positive Product Optimisation (PPO).

Primal Pictures was established in 1991 with the goal of creating the only complete and medically accurate 3D model of the human anatomy. Its 3D anatomy software is widely adopted in education and it is currently used for patient, practitioner and student education in over 20 countries. 

Working in conjunction with Primal Pictures, FAST instigated a project that sought to and thus disrupt illegal postings and the distribution of pirated products online in the campaign in June this year.

FAST Chief Executive John Lovelock explains, “This was one of the most exciting initiatives we have launched in recent years, aimed at taking down listings on the web that claim to be selling legitimate software. Not only were we successful in taking down 63 from Google, we eradicated 41 forum postings and tackled a host of images containing infringing representations of the Primal product. So my message to the online infringers is this - we will find you and we will cut off the oxygen to your operations.”

Peter Allan, CEO of Primal Pictures, stated: “It simply cannot be right that a company such as ours, which invests heavily into new product development over a great many years, should become prey to someone who thinks it is acceptable to just rip us off. We have taken the risk, we have done the work, and we need to protect our intellectual property. This is why we were delighted to take part in this initiative with FAST and we are delighted with the outcome.”

The campaign was two-fold. Firstly FAST actioned an extensive Product Piracy Takedown campaign which included the full utilisation of the current removal process offered by Google. The campaign sought to induce the removal of a number of illegal listings from Google rankings, websites, blogs and forums. With a 100% success rate illegal rankings no longer dominated Google and therefore consumer exposure to these sites was dramatically reduced.

The second stage of the campaign was to ‘repopulate’ the Google rankings with legitimate Primal Pictures content. In so doing it changed the results generated when using a search engine to source products.

Peter Allan added: “Ultimately the purpose of this is to clean up the online sales environment enabling consumers to buy legitimate products. The overall result was to substantially change the first three pages of a Google search, by replacing infringing content with positive content from the rights holder, which in this case was Primal Pictures.”

“The creative industries are today what manufacturing used to mean to the UK’s economy in previous decades. IP contributes a total of £53 billion to our GDP, which equates to around eight per cent overall, while the creative industries that include software, film, music, games, eBooks and other sectors are responsible for employing 1.9 million people. Digital piracy is not victimless and this new campaign will add a new string to our bow in the fight against IP theft,” concluded John.