Operation Redirect: Police Anti-Malware Action Protects Music & Pirates

Despite malware having an even worse reputation than piracy, until now police operations to take sites down, explicitly because they're involved in both, have been pretty much non-existent. This week, music industry group IFPI revealed Operation Redirect, "the first operation of its kind in Brazil to target illegal sites associated with malware distribution." Intrigued by the announcement, we took a closer look and found plenty of drama.

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Most anti-piracy campaigns of the last four or five decades feature a direct order (Don’t Pirate) followed by some additional information for people to consider before making an informed choice.

The direct order “Don’t Pirate” has never changed, but it only becomes effective when paired with a reason to abstain, ideally something that provokes consideration of the consequences.

Most angles have already been tested. “Home Taping is Killing Music” implied that if piracy continued, people would stop making music. Other campaigns have encouraged people to think of bands just starting out, artists struggling to make ends meet, and people who paint scenery on the set of Hollywood blockbusters.

When none of those hit the spot, “Don’t Pirate” was paired with “….because you’re probably going to get sued.” Yet even when pirates were prompted to think only of themselves, some inevitably continued to pirate.

One Anti-Piracy Strategy Consistently Performs

The best anti-piracy strategy is the accessible content at a fair price strategy, and after a reluctant start, the music industry is still leading the way, and reaping the rewards.

This week’s publication of IFPI’s Global Music Report 2024 includes the chart below which speaks for itself.

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Results like these present a dilemma. On one hand they are very, very impressive; on the other, they could be even more impressive if piracy could be further reduced. Unfortunately, when sales are trending strongly in the right direction, pairing “Don’t Pirate” with anything that implies an industry on the financial brink, will probably end in failure.

Any attempt to promote a doom narrative in Latin America right now would run up against the fourteenth consecutive year of revenue growth, per IFPI’s latest report, with recorded music revenues “once again outpacing the global growth rate” with an increase of 19.4% in 2023. When homing in on Brazil, in 2023 there was a double-digit percentage climb of 13.4%.

Fortunately, the latest trend in anti-piracy messaging couples “Don’t Pirate” with something that can be used no matter how well the music industry is performing: “Malware Warning.”

“First-of-a-Kind Operation” in Brazil

As IFPI explained in a separate announcement this week, anti-piracy operations benefit creators but can also benefit the wider public. Case in point, Operation Redirect, a recently launched Brazilian law enforcement initiative supported by IFPI and Pro-Música Brasil.

“Operation Redirect is the first operation of its kind in Brazil to target illegal sites associated with malware distribution. It has already resulted in the identification and deactivation of eight sites that were sharing unauthorized music whilst exposing users to malware and viruses,” IFPI explains.

“This first iteration of the operation targeted a range of infringing websites that collectively received over 12 million visits in Brazil in the last year. They include illegal linking music sites, Stream ripping sites and Torrent search engines.”

Sites ‘Redirected’ end up here (translated)

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IFPI says the operation was carried out by The Ministry of Justice and Public Security, through the Cyber Operations Laboratory (CIBERLAB) of the Directorate of Integrated Operations and Intelligence (DIOPI / SENASP), in partnership with the Civil Police of Bahia, Mato Grosso and Pernambuco.

Brazil regularly shuts down pirate sites but the suggestion here – that music piracy and malware have been placed on broadly equal footing – is intriguing.

Pirates may complain strongly when they lose access to free music, but a site operator arrested for deliberately hurting site visitors rather than for just piracy itself, is something new. Not only would that significantly damage any ‘Robin Hood’ imagery, it would show that the authorities are using finite public resources to protect the public, not just the music industry.

That might also help dampen suspicions that “Malware Warning” isn’t simply the latest “Don’t Pirate” add-on. And if things went really well, the overall message might be one that even pirates would find persuasive.

How Things Played Out in Brazil

Within the first few seconds of the CNN report broadcast to millions on live TV, it was clear this was report was, first and foremost, all about music piracy.

CNN went with ‘OPERAÇÃO DERRUBA SITES PIRATA DE MÚSICA’ (OPERATION TAKES DOWN PIRATE MUSIC SITES) to a background video of three unmarked SUVs departing police HQ, with red strobes already blazing from behind blacked-out windows. (English captions from voiceover)

Operation Redirect begins

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“The Ministry of Justice is carrying out an operation against pirated music sites,” the studio presenter said, before handing over to a reporter with additional details.

“[T]here are still many pirated music sites on the internet, that is why this operation coordinated by the Ministry of Justice is on the streets with the support of three civil police from the states, for example Bahia, Pernambuco, and also in Mato Grosso,” he explained.

“Three search and seizure warrants were served, and the current assessment is that eight illegal sites that were making irregular music available without due authorization have already been taken down in this operation investigated by the cyberlab.”

Weapons drawn, searches begin

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The reporter goes on to note that the operation resulted in just one arrest, and that the suspect was caught in flagrante delicto.

“Inside the house of a person who is responsible for one of these illegal sites, there were a lot of weapons, unregistered weapons. These are the weapons that were seized and why the person was arrested.”

Man arrested for unlicensed guns

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So after hearing about the music piracy and the unlicensed weapons, what about the malware?

More About the Malware

Towards the end of the report, CNN did raise the issue of malware, noting that users who visit pirate music sites “become vulnerable because there are many viruses that these criminals are putting them on these sites which then appear on the computers and also on the cell phones of these users of the platforms on the internet.”

Brazil’s government also mentioned the malware angle.

“In addition to appropriating the works, the criminals left consumers who accessed these platforms vulnerable to viruses and malware (programs created to cause damage to computers and servers). As a result, users could have their machines infected and damaged or be redirected to phishing websites, capable of stealing personal, financial and corporate information,” a statement reads.

The big question is whether this relatively new strategy, now deployed across all entertainment industries, can succeed where others have failed. If CNN’s coverage is anything to go by, where malware was mentioned as a footnote, in an operation that was supposed to see piracy and malware given similar priority, not a chance.

Most current campaigns spend very little time ordering people not to pirate. Instead, they focus on associated dangers and then try to persuade people that, on balance, free or cheap content that arrives with malware or other threats to security, is actually poor value for money, not the bargain they were promised.

Unfortunately, without some kind of proof, the messages mean almost nothing. Yet there’s actually no shortage of proof, only a reluctance to share it.