When a domain appears on the ‘Infringing Website List’, it means that UK police have concluded its activities are most likely criminal. Advertisers and other intermediaries are advised that knowingly supporting crime, is a crime in itself. The IWL is not open to scrutiny but TorrentFreak has learned that for the last four months, a GitHub subdomain has been labeled “massively infringing.”

The ‘Infringing Website List’ (IWL) is operated by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) in the UK under the banner ‘Operation Creative’.

Launched in 2014, its purpose is to disrupt pirate sites’ ability to make money when takedown notices and other efforts by the “private sector have had limited success.”

The IWL is considered a proportionate response to rampant online piracy, and given the nature of most domains currently on the list, it would be foolish to argue otherwise. That said, the IWL is a completely closed system and as such there is close to zero public transparency.

The rest of this article can be read on TorrentFreak.com

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