Peter Szyszko, CEO of White Bullet: Driving the Post-Pandemic Anti-Piracy Movement

CEO.digital: How did you first identify the gap in the market for your services? 

Peter Szyszko: As brands and their advertising partners run ads in large volumes through programmatic channels, inevitably a proportion of these appear in the inventory of illegal websites distributing pirated content. The ad revenue generated by these websites makes them highly profitable for criminal operators to host. 

Owners of the stolen IP lose revenue through piracy, but brands are also hurt when they allow their ads to run on illegal websites – not only do these placements produce a lower ROI in comparison to legitimate environments, but they can also damage a brand’s reputation in an instant. We realised that if we could develop a way to automatically disable inventory on piracy sites, we would effectively cut their funding and quash their commercial viability. The result would be a healthier ecosystem for all legitimate parties. 

What key things did you learn when you first launched White Bullet?  

Our initial focus was to monitor the ad-funded piracy ecosystem. We wanted to understand its methods, identify the players involved and quantify its impact. We were then able to develop ways to counterattack the ecosystem and disrupt its operations. Streaming piracy is a slippery but worthwhile target, since it syphons off billions of dollars from the advertising supply chain.

What part do you believe White Bullet has played in enhancing anti-piracy capabilities?   

We’ve already developed a revolutionary way to combat piracy in ad tech. By partnering with Peer39 and Silverbullet’s 4D, and integrating our IP infringement database with their programmatic platforms, we can now automatically identify piracy websites and instantly remove them from the real-time bidstream. Today, all a brand has to do is tell advertisers they don’t want to run ads on these sites and they can stop it with the push of a button, which is a huge step forward. 

In the short term, we expect this technology to be applied to live streams, and in particular, sporting events. But in time, we envisage this extending to in-app and CTV (Connected Television) brand safety as well.  

What do you think is the next big step in anti-piracy legislation?  

Interpol has just unveiled the new I-SOP (Interpol Stop Online Piracy) initiative. According to the organisation, digital piracy has increased by more than 60% in some countries during the pandemic, so they have introduced new powers designed to quell the problem. Under I-SOP, law enforcement agencies will be able to confiscate the assets of criminal networks, and shut down marketplaces where illegitimate content is traded. This could have a substantial impact on the viability of these crime rings. 

Why do you think there is still so much investment in advertising on sites and services that provide pirated material?  

Obviously IP owners have an incentive to prevent their content being illegally copied, and brands aren’t keen on criminals profiting from their advertising budgets. However, some unscrupulous ad networks haven’t seen any benefit in tackling the problem thus far, since it is the brands who are paying to run the ads. The fact still remains that these ad networks are not incentivised if they are taking commission from each impression on a pirate site. This combined with the fact that tools to tackle piracy just didn’t exist before has been an issue. Now, we do have robust, cost-effective solutions and there’s a clear way forward – ad suppliers can clean up their software stacks with no additional effort or cost. So there’s no reason not to get on board with the anti-piracy movement.