PayPal joins London police bid to financially starve "illegal" websites

[DainBramaged]

PayPal has joined a music copyright association and the City of London police department's bid to financially starve websites deemed "illegal." When presented with sufficient evidence of unlicensed downloading from a site, the United Kingdom's PayPal branch "will require the retailer to submit proof of licensing for the music offered by the retailer," said the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's latest press release.

The company will then "discontinue services to retailers in cases where licensing appears to be inadequate." The announcement comes with the requisite gung-ho statement from Carl Scheible, PayPal UK's managing director.

This shows that PayPal is "very serious about fighting music piracy," Scheible explains. "We've always banned PayPal's use for the sale of content that infringes copyright, and the new system will make life even harder for illegal operators. Our partnership with the music industry helps rights holders make money from their own content while stopping the pirates in their tracks."

MasterCard and Visa are already on board this initiative, originally unveiled in March. The process works like this: IFPI submits allegedly infringing websites to the City of London police department's Economic Crime Directorate. Once the division has "verified the evidence," it passes the information on to MasterCard, Visa, and now PayPal.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/07/paypal-joins-london-police-bid-to-financially-starve-illegal-websites.ars


Squeeze 'em from the left, squeeze 'em from the right.