Web Sheriff
Encyclopedia
Web Sheriff is an anti-piracy
company based in the United Kingdom
that provides intellectual property
, copyright
and privacy rights protection services for a range of clients that include record labels, musical artists, media organizations, and celebrities. The company monitors various websites that host links to unauthorized downloads of copyrighted music and film. The company has been in operation since 2000, with two offices in the UK.
The company was founded by attorney John Giacobbi, who acts as its managing director. While Web Sheriff will send an immediate "take-down" notice to BitTorrent and other file-sharing sites or threaten lawsuits on behalf of its clients, the company reports that over half of its activities involve sending an initial polite request to blogs and fansites for copyrighted music to be removed, engaging with fans and offering free official promotional tracks and clips from the artist as replacement for the leaked material. According to the Los Angeles Times
, Web Sheriff is a "leading advocate of the soft sell" in the anti-piracy industry.
, libel, identity theft
, privacy issues of social media
, protection from cyber-bullying
and recovery of fraudulently registered domain names.
The company provides design, website build and maintenance services as well as online security for the live broadcasts of concerts. It provides video editing services and manufactures watermarked
CDs and DVDs and provides individually watermarked digital
streams of audio and video for journalists.
The most predominate work it performs is copyright
protection services for record labels, music artists and film companies when releasing new material. Major corporate record label
s, independent record label
s and American film production companies
use the company's services. It monitors blog
s, BitTorrent trackers, file-sharing sites, YouTube
, eBay
, film-sharing sites and websites that host links to downloads of copyrighted music and film.
Web Sheriff uses proprietary software and web-crawler programmers to search the Internet. It relies heavily on phone calls and relationship building instead of only on technology. It does not illegally interfere or add bogus files but targets the persons running the sites. When approaching fans on blogs, a polite request is made for the copyrighted material to be removed, while providing the fans with free official tracks and clips from the artist and record label. When it detects pirated content on BitTorrent and other file-sharing sites, the offending party is given an initial warning before further action is taken. According to Web Sheriff, some Torrent sites and file sharing sites such as Mediafire
and Rapidshare
provide access and allow them to remove infringing content.
John Giacobbi, who acts as company spokesman and managing director. Prior to forming Web Sheriff, Giacobbi had been an independent consultant to record labels and artists including Village People
. The formation of the company evolved from a desire by Giacobbi to help Village People retain their rights on the internet, as copyright infringement
s had become a major problem for the band at that time.
The company first came to note when it was hired by Prince
in 2007 to "disappear entirely from the internet." The star's spokesman related that "Prince believes strongly that as an artist the music rights must remain with the artist and thus copyrights should be protected across the board." "Very few artists have ever taken this kind of action over their rights." Some of the Prince fans fought back, formed their own organization called "Prince Fans United" and hired an attorney. In September 2007, Web Sheriff announced it would launch lawsuits against YouTube
, eBay
and The Pirate Bay
on behalf of Prince if they refused compliance. These sites were described by the company's spokesman as in the "vanguard of online piracy". Peter Sunde
, co-founder of The Pirate Bay, dismissed the threats, stating that American law was not applicable in Sweden. YouTube complied by removing over 2,000 videos from their site and eBay removed more than 300 auctions. Numerous unauthorized overseas online sites selling merchandise featuring Prince were shut down.
Nick Bracegirdle with Chicane
hired Web Sheriff in 2007 to prevent leaks from his album Somersault
after selling his Ferrari
and mortgaging his home to finance it. (Chicane's 2003 album, Easy to Assemble was so widely pirated by a Russian counterfeiter alone, selling thousands of copies with a sleeve from a previous album with the title digitally removed, that it was never officially released.)
In 2007, when Bloc Party
's album A Weekend in the City
leaked three months previous to release, their record label, V2 Records
hired Web Sheriff to stop the leakage as the album was intended to make the band popular on an international basis. Web Sheriff at first appealed to fan sites to not post links to the album out of respect for the band. When this approach did not work, widespread uploaders were tracked down and sent letters that referred to possible prosecution. Said to face a possible one million illegal MP3 files downloaded, according to V2, the leakage was reduced to an insignificant amount and the album sold Gold in the UK and was a Top 20 hit in the US.
In 2008, Van Morrison
hired the company to contact fan sites and demand that photos, lyrics and other copyrighted material be removed immediately. His manager stated that posting the photos were an invasion of Morrison's privacy. The two most popular sites closed down soon after they were notified. Through the wishes of the artist all related videos on YouTube and elsewhere promptly disappeared from the Internet.
Bryan Adams
employed the company in 2008 to remove thousands of low quality bootleg
video clips from YouTube
and replace them with official videos on his own channel. The new channel was a success and had 187 million views one and one-half years later.
When Qtrax
introduced their new file-sharing site In January 2008, Web Sheriff notified the site on behalf of Prince, Van Morrison
and The Black Crowes
that regardless of whether the music companies supported the service, individual artists would have to give their approval.
When "Brother Sport
", the first song from Animal Collective
's album Merriweather Post Pavilion
leaked in November 2008, Web Sheriff posted to Grizzly Bear
's blog that they were the "global-leak-source of the track" and asked for an apology to be posted on the blog for a week to Domino Records, Animal Collective and Web Sheriff. Grizzly Bear band member Ed Droste
complied and apologized stating "The Web Sheriff is just doing his job, and we're all aware of the damage internet file sharing is doing to album sales." The album leaked a month early and while Web Sheriff said it was "virtually impossible to completely put an album back in the box after a leak", the company was able to remove 90% or 10,000 of the links.
RLSLOG, called one of the world's most popular release news sites, was taken offline in January 2009 through efforts by Web Sheriff. The site was shut down by complaints by Web Sheriff to its web site host and band width provider.
Bob Dylan
used the company's services pro bono
to protect his charity Christmas album, Christmas in the Heart
following its leak in October 2009. By removing unauthorized downloads, more money was generated for World food programs for hunger relief. Web Sheriff also removed unauthorized videos from the internet, replacing them with official ones on Dylan's YouTube channel.
In January 2011, the anti-piracy company helped Adele
's album, 21
to chart at number one when ninety-nine percent of the leaks were removed prior to the album's release by Web Sheriff.
In May 2011, when a Web Sheriff protected album, Born This Way
, by Lady Gaga
, leaked a week before release, fans were offered official material such as tracks and videos in return for not posting copies of it on sites. Web Sheriff reported that when a mailbox was set up for reporting leaks, tens of thousands of fans responded and sent in links to copies due to the fans' loyalty and bond to the artist.
In July 2011, Web Sheriff announced that it was taking legal action against a Russian website that has copied the Web Sheriff trademark and also purports to offer the same services as the anti-piracy company. American and Russian litigators were retained for the "intercontinental legal attack" against the Russian site.
The company was directly responsible for the removal of the Ken Bigley execution videos and has closed down terrorist related sites and monitored trading sites. as well as the extreme pornographic strangulation
sites at the center of the notorious Jane Longhurst
2003 murder trial at the Old Bailey
in London
, England.
and actively engaging with and including fans and bloggers in their marketing and promotion." Web Sheriff states their intent is to engage with the protected artist's fans where they congregate most and redirect them to artist approved material with the hope that they will leave the leaked content alone. The company then tries to build a relationship with the fans and promote the artist further by sharing links to their Facebook
, YouTube
, Myspace
page and to the artist's official website.
Music fans and bloggers often initially respond angrily when first requested by Web Sheriff to take down MP3
tracks or to not post them on the music-related site. Web Sheriff's usual approach is an appeal to the fans to respect the wishes of the band with offers of links to approved tracks and samples for the new album. Fans sometimes interpret this as Web Sheriff saying, "I've got my eye on you." The company spokesman says that eventually most of the fans tend to respect the wishes of their favored artists by cooperating. As related by The Guardian, The Prodigy fans on the brainkiller forum engaged with Web Sheriff on a thread that lasted through 18 pages. Some of the fans who had been hostile at the beginning, then asked what they could do to help the band.
Anti-piracy
Anti-piracy is a term used to describe countermeasures against maritime piracy but moreoften by some to describe the attempt to prevent copyright infringement, counterfeiting, and other violations of intellectual-property rights....
company based in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
that provides intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
, copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
and privacy rights protection services for a range of clients that include record labels, musical artists, media organizations, and celebrities. The company monitors various websites that host links to unauthorized downloads of copyrighted music and film. The company has been in operation since 2000, with two offices in the UK.
The company was founded by attorney John Giacobbi, who acts as its managing director. While Web Sheriff will send an immediate "take-down" notice to BitTorrent and other file-sharing sites or threaten lawsuits on behalf of its clients, the company reports that over half of its activities involve sending an initial polite request to blogs and fansites for copyrighted music to be removed, engaging with fans and offering free official promotional tracks and clips from the artist as replacement for the leaked material. According to the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Web Sheriff is a "leading advocate of the soft sell" in the anti-piracy industry.
Description
Web Sheriff performs online rights management services including copyright infringementCopyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
, libel, identity theft
Identity theft
Identity theft is a form of stealing another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name...
, privacy issues of social media
Social media
The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...
, protection from cyber-bullying
Cyber-bullying
Cyber-bullying is the use of the Internet and related technologies to harm other people, in a deliberate, repeated, and hostile manner. As it has become more common in society, particularly among young people, legislation and awareness campaigns have arisen to combat it.-Definition:The term...
and recovery of fraudulently registered domain names.
The company provides design, website build and maintenance services as well as online security for the live broadcasts of concerts. It provides video editing services and manufactures watermarked
Digital watermarking
Digital watermarking is the process of embedding information into a digital signal which may be used to verify its authenticity or the identity of its owners, in the same manner as paper bearing a watermark for visible identification. In digital watermarking, the signal may be audio, pictures, or...
CDs and DVDs and provides individually watermarked digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
streams of audio and video for journalists.
The most predominate work it performs is copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
protection services for record labels, music artists and film companies when releasing new material. Major corporate record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
s, independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
s and American film production companies
Production company
A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...
use the company's services. It monitors blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s, BitTorrent trackers, file-sharing sites, YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, film-sharing sites and websites that host links to downloads of copyrighted music and film.
Web Sheriff uses proprietary software and web-crawler programmers to search the Internet. It relies heavily on phone calls and relationship building instead of only on technology. It does not illegally interfere or add bogus files but targets the persons running the sites. When approaching fans on blogs, a polite request is made for the copyrighted material to be removed, while providing the fans with free official tracks and clips from the artist and record label. When it detects pirated content on BitTorrent and other file-sharing sites, the offending party is given an initial warning before further action is taken. According to Web Sheriff, some Torrent sites and file sharing sites such as Mediafire
MediaFire
MediaFire is a free file and image hosting web site that started in 2006 and is located in Harris County, Texas, United States. The domain mediafire.com attracted almost 60 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.- Features :...
and Rapidshare
RapidShare
RapidShare is a one-click hosting service that offers both free and commercial services. Operating from Switzerland, it is financed by the subscriptions of paying users...
provide access and allow them to remove infringing content.
History
Web Sheriff was founded in 2000 by attorneyLawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
John Giacobbi, who acts as company spokesman and managing director. Prior to forming Web Sheriff, Giacobbi had been an independent consultant to record labels and artists including Village People
Village People
Village People is a concept disco group that formed in the United States in 1977, well known for their on-stage costumes depicting American cultural stereotypes, as well as their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics....
. The formation of the company evolved from a desire by Giacobbi to help Village People retain their rights on the internet, as copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
s had become a major problem for the band at that time.
The company first came to note when it was hired by Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
in 2007 to "disappear entirely from the internet." The star's spokesman related that "Prince believes strongly that as an artist the music rights must remain with the artist and thus copyrights should be protected across the board." "Very few artists have ever taken this kind of action over their rights." Some of the Prince fans fought back, formed their own organization called "Prince Fans United" and hired an attorney. In September 2007, Web Sheriff announced it would launch lawsuits against YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
and The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
on behalf of Prince if they refused compliance. These sites were described by the company's spokesman as in the "vanguard of online piracy". Peter Sunde
Peter Sunde
Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi is an IT expert with Norwegian and Finnish roots. He is best known for being a co-founder and the spokesperson of The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent tracker site.-Personal life:...
, co-founder of The Pirate Bay, dismissed the threats, stating that American law was not applicable in Sweden. YouTube complied by removing over 2,000 videos from their site and eBay removed more than 300 auctions. Numerous unauthorized overseas online sites selling merchandise featuring Prince were shut down.
Nick Bracegirdle with Chicane
Chicane (recording artist)
Chicane is a British electronic dance music act, and the guise of British musician, composer, songwriter and record producer, Nicholas Bracegirdle....
hired Web Sheriff in 2007 to prevent leaks from his album Somersault
Somersault (Chicane album)
Somersault is Chicane's third official studio album, released on 23 July 2007. It is Chicane's first album self-released on producer and songwriter Nick Bracegirdle's independent record label, Modena Records.-History:...
after selling his Ferrari
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...
and mortgaging his home to finance it. (Chicane's 2003 album, Easy to Assemble was so widely pirated by a Russian counterfeiter alone, selling thousands of copies with a sleeve from a previous album with the title digitally removed, that it was never officially released.)
In 2007, when Bloc Party
Bloc Party
Bloc Party are a British Indie rock band, composed of Kele Okereke , Russell Lissack , Gordon Moakes , and Matt Tong...
's album A Weekend in the City
A Weekend In The City
A Weekend in the City is the second studio album by British indie rock band Bloc Party. It was recorded at Grouse Lodge Studios in Westmeath, Ireland, in mid-2006 and was produced by Jacknife Lee. The record was refined and mixed at several locations in London at the end of 2006...
leaked three months previous to release, their record label, V2 Records
V2 Records
V2 Records is a record label that is owned by Universal Music Group as of October 2007. The label was founded in 1996 by Richard Branson, five years after he sold Virgin Records to EMI....
hired Web Sheriff to stop the leakage as the album was intended to make the band popular on an international basis. Web Sheriff at first appealed to fan sites to not post links to the album out of respect for the band. When this approach did not work, widespread uploaders were tracked down and sent letters that referred to possible prosecution. Said to face a possible one million illegal MP3 files downloaded, according to V2, the leakage was reduced to an insignificant amount and the album sold Gold in the UK and was a Top 20 hit in the US.
In 2008, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
hired the company to contact fan sites and demand that photos, lyrics and other copyrighted material be removed immediately. His manager stated that posting the photos were an invasion of Morrison's privacy. The two most popular sites closed down soon after they were notified. Through the wishes of the artist all related videos on YouTube and elsewhere promptly disappeared from the Internet.
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...
employed the company in 2008 to remove thousands of low quality bootleg
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
video clips from YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and replace them with official videos on his own channel. The new channel was a success and had 187 million views one and one-half years later.
When Qtrax
Qtrax
Qtrax is an advertiser-supported free music download service based in New York. The company is best known for the controversy following its launch attempt in January 2008...
introduced their new file-sharing site In January 2008, Web Sheriff notified the site on behalf of Prince, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
and The Black Crowes
The Black Crowes
The Black Crowes are an American rock band formed in 1989. Their discography includes nine studio albums, four live albums and several charting singles. The band was signed to Def American Recordings in 1989 by producer George Drakoulias and released their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, the...
that regardless of whether the music companies supported the service, individual artists would have to give their approval.
When "Brother Sport
Brother Sport
"Brother Sport" is the third single from Animal Collective's 2009 album Merriweather Post Pavilion, released on November 9, 2009 by Domino Records. The single is available as a 10" vinyl single and as a digital download. It was written by Panda Bear to encourage his brother into talking about...
", the first song from Animal Collective
Animal Collective
Animal Collective is an experimental psychedelic band originally from Baltimore, Maryland, currently based in New York City. Animal Collective consists of Avey Tare , Panda Bear , Deakin , and Geologist...
's album Merriweather Post Pavilion
Merriweather Post Pavilion (album)
Merriweather Post Pavilion is the eighth studio album by American indie rock group Animal Collective, released in January 2009 on Domino Records. The album is named after the Columbia, Maryland venue, Merriweather Post Pavilion. At nearly 55 minutes in length, the album is the group's longest since...
leaked in November 2008, Web Sheriff posted to Grizzly Bear
Grizzly Bear (band)
Grizzly Bear is a Brooklyn-based indie rock band, composed of Edward Droste , Daniel Rossen , Chris Taylor and Christopher Bear . The band employs traditional and electronic instruments...
's blog that they were the "global-leak-source of the track" and asked for an apology to be posted on the blog for a week to Domino Records, Animal Collective and Web Sheriff. Grizzly Bear band member Ed Droste
Ed Droste
Edward "Ed" Droste is an original member of the Brooklyn-based indie-rock group, Grizzly Bear. The group began as the solo effort of Droste with the release of 2004's Horn of Plenty, originally released on Kanine Records. All songs were written and performed by Droste...
complied and apologized stating "The Web Sheriff is just doing his job, and we're all aware of the damage internet file sharing is doing to album sales." The album leaked a month early and while Web Sheriff said it was "virtually impossible to completely put an album back in the box after a leak", the company was able to remove 90% or 10,000 of the links.
RLSLOG, called one of the world's most popular release news sites, was taken offline in January 2009 through efforts by Web Sheriff. The site was shut down by complaints by Web Sheriff to its web site host and band width provider.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
used the company's services pro bono
Pro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...
to protect his charity Christmas album, Christmas in the Heart
Christmas in the Heart
Christmas in the Heart is Bob Dylan's 34th studio album and first Christmas album, released on October 13, 2009 on Columbia. The album comprises a collection of hymns, carols, and popular Christmas songs...
following its leak in October 2009. By removing unauthorized downloads, more money was generated for World food programs for hunger relief. Web Sheriff also removed unauthorized videos from the internet, replacing them with official ones on Dylan's YouTube channel.
In January 2011, the anti-piracy company helped Adele
Adele (singer)
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins , known professionally as Adele, is an English singer-songwriter. She was the first recipient of the Brit Awards Critics' Choice and was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2008 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2008...
's album, 21
21 (Adele album)
21 is the second studio album by English recording artist Adele. Released on 24 January 2011 in the United Kingdom and most of Europe, and on 22 February 2011 in North America, the album was named after the age of the singer at the time of its production...
to chart at number one when ninety-nine percent of the leaks were removed prior to the album's release by Web Sheriff.
In May 2011, when a Web Sheriff protected album, Born This Way
Born This Way
Born This Way is the second studio album by American recording artist Lady Gaga that was released on May 23, 2011, by Interscope Records. The album is a follow-up to her internationally-successful albums The Fame and The Fame Monster...
, by Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
, leaked a week before release, fans were offered official material such as tracks and videos in return for not posting copies of it on sites. Web Sheriff reported that when a mailbox was set up for reporting leaks, tens of thousands of fans responded and sent in links to copies due to the fans' loyalty and bond to the artist.
In July 2011, Web Sheriff announced that it was taking legal action against a Russian website that has copied the Web Sheriff trademark and also purports to offer the same services as the anti-piracy company. American and Russian litigators were retained for the "intercontinental legal attack" against the Russian site.
The company was directly responsible for the removal of the Ken Bigley execution videos and has closed down terrorist related sites and monitored trading sites. as well as the extreme pornographic strangulation
Erotic asphyxiation
Erotic asphyxiation or breath control play is the intentional restriction of oxygen to the brain for sexual arousal. The sexual preference for that behavior is variously called asphyxiophilia, autoerotic asphyxia, hypoxyphilia. Colloquially, a person engaging in the activity is sometimes called a...
sites at the center of the notorious Jane Longhurst
Graham Coutts
Graham Coutts is the man convicted of murdering school teacher Jane Longhurst on 14 March 2003. At the time, he was a guitarist and part-time salesman living in Brighton, UK. Coutts claimed that Longhurst had died accidentally during consensual erotic asphyxiation, although the prosecution...
2003 murder trial at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England.
Reception
Web Sheriff is said to also function as a "fan outreach organization" through its unique, "gentle, gradual approach". The company's methods make use of each fan encounter to "turn a negative into a positive by using viral marketingViral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
and actively engaging with and including fans and bloggers in their marketing and promotion." Web Sheriff states their intent is to engage with the protected artist's fans where they congregate most and redirect them to artist approved material with the hope that they will leave the leaked content alone. The company then tries to build a relationship with the fans and promote the artist further by sharing links to their Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, Myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page and to the artist's official website.
Music fans and bloggers often initially respond angrily when first requested by Web Sheriff to take down MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
tracks or to not post them on the music-related site. Web Sheriff's usual approach is an appeal to the fans to respect the wishes of the band with offers of links to approved tracks and samples for the new album. Fans sometimes interpret this as Web Sheriff saying, "I've got my eye on you." The company spokesman says that eventually most of the fans tend to respect the wishes of their favored artists by cooperating. As related by The Guardian, The Prodigy fans on the brainkiller forum engaged with Web Sheriff on a thread that lasted through 18 pages. Some of the fans who had been hostile at the beginning, then asked what they could do to help the band.
External links
- Web Sheriff official website
- AMERICANA; John McEuen interviews John Giacobbi - Europe's Web Sheriff Syndicatednews.net - 03/20/2011