The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) this week is rolling out a new resource for piracy-minded marketers. The TAG “pirate mobile app tool” is designed to help brands keep their ads off mobile apps that carry pirated content.
Already, TAG says the tool has identified more than 8,000 apps that violate intellectual property rights.
Among other industry authorities, The Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America have thrown their support behind TAG’s offering.
Farnaz Alemi, vice president of the global content protection counsel at the MPAA, said piracy presents an enormous threat to the mobile content ecosystem.
“This creative marketplace is being threatened by a profusion of illicit mobile apps that distribute a vast range of pirated content globally,” Alemi stated.
Complicating efforts to police the mobile space, most consumers are unaware of the profusion of pirated content in the marketplace.
A study recently published by the RIAA found that 73% of respondents assumed that any music app offering downloads from an official app store had been licensed by artists and rights holders.
TAG’s Pirate Mobile App Tool stems from the coalition Anti-Piracy Working Group, which previously developed a set of best practices guidelines to help the industry identify and filter out infringing mobile apps.