The British police have claimed success on the key copyright fronts: it became known that Operation Creative, the initiative backed by anti-piracy outfits, has secured the suspension of 40 pirate domains plus a reduction in major brands advertising on those websites.

City of London Police have been cooperating with the entertainment industry to tackle websites that provide illegal access to copyrighted material. Operation Creative was launched this past summer to target a list of over 60 portals with a clear message. The services were informed that they had two options: either change their behavior or be dealt with by Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit.

Most of the targeted services refused to comply. The police say that in response they sent the websites’ details to advertising agencies with a request to stop placing advertising on them. Within a 3-month pilot period the amount of advertising on those websites dropped by 12%.

The industry observers suggest that attack on advertising may have led to website owners struggling to maintain their profits. In result, they saw a 39% increase in portals displaying adult content or items exposing users to malware. The police claimed that websites promoting unauthorized material are unsafe platforms that put families at risk. Many of those websites have no content filters and carry content that is unsuitable for children.

UK Police said that the next stage of Operation Creative targeted the domains of websites from the original 60 that despite the warnings carried on their operation. The authorities sent letters to domain registrars to inform them that they were doing business with businesses facilitating copyright infringement.

The first sign of this action came in October when our own domain was suspended by UK registrars, and now you can reach us at .cc instead of .com. Today, however, UK police are claiming even bigger successes with the suspension of domains that belong to 40 national and international portals, while saying that they can’t release the names of the targeted websites, because some of them are still subject to ongoing investigation.