From CLICK to CRIME: investigating intellectual property crime in the digital age; Europol, October 2025

 Europol; From CLICK to CRIME: investigating intellectual property crime in the digital age

"A new wave of online crime is putting consumers, businesses, and the wider economy at risk - from fake medicines and forged wine to illegal streaming platforms. The increase in counterfeit goods and the criminal abuse of intellectual property affect our daily lives more than many realise, with consequences that go far beyond lost revenue.

The conference “From CLICK to CRIME: Investigating Intellectual Property Crime in the Digital Age” was held on 22 and 23 October 2025 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Jointly organised by Europol, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and Bulgaria’s General Directorate Combating Organised Crime (GDBOP), the event highlighted the vital importance of collaboration in tackling online crime. The participants reaffirmed the importance of strong collective efforts in tackling online-enabled intellectual property crime to protect consumers, safeguard creativity and uphold trust in the digital economy.

Consider a few key examples of the major threats posed by intellectual property crime:

• Illegal streaming and sharing platforms not only drain the cinema, publishing, musical and software industries but also expose viewers, especially children, to unregulated and potentially harmful content.
• Fake pharmaceuticals, supplements and illicit doping substances, promoted on social media and websites, are produced in clandestine labs without testing or quality control. Dangerous products, circulating in gyms and among amateur athletes, can cause severe or even fatal health effects.
• Counterfeit toys, perfumes, and cosmetics are also trafficked online and carry hidden dangers, trading low prices for high risks to health and safety.

Behind many of these schemes are well-structured organised criminal networks that view intellectual property crime not as a secondary activity, but as a lucrative business model."

Using AI to Create Content? Watch Out for Copyright Violations; Chicago Business Attorney Blog, June 20, 2024

 George Bellas , Chicago Business Attorney Blog; Using AI to Create Content? Watch Out for Copyright Violations

"Businesses using generative AI programs like ChatGPT to create any content—whether for blogs, websites or other marketing materials, and whether text, visuals, sound or video—need to ensure that they’re not inadvertently using copyrighted materials in the process.

Clearly, the times they are a changing….and businesses need to adapt to the changes.  Employers should promulgate messages to their employees and contractors updating their policy manuals to ensure that communications professionals and others crafting content are aware of the risks of using AI-generated materials, which go beyond the possibility that they are “hallucinated” rather than factual—although that’s worth considering, too."

COVID-19 and Trade Secrets: Is Your Business Prepared to Protect its Trade Secrets While Your Employees Work From Home?; National Law Review, March 25, 2020

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP., National Law Review; COVID-19 and Trade Secrets: Is Your Business Prepared to Protect its Trade Secrets While Your Employees Work From Home?

"In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, many businesses (particularly those in states or cities under “stay home” orders) have implemented a work-from-home (“WFH”) directive for employees.  It is important for businesses to address the security of their trade secrets in this new environment in order to reduce the risk of misappropriation.  It is also important to reduce the risk that the trade secret status of information will be lost based on a failure to take reasonable steps to protect its secrecy.  This article addresses some steps your business can consider taking to protect trade secrets accessible by employees who are now working at home.  Even if your business had a WFH policy before the COVID-19 outbreak, it should be re-visited in light of the current circumstances flowing from a pandemic during which all or most of your workforce may be operating on a WFH basis.  For example, what was once a “no trade secrets may be taken home” policy may be impossible in the current climate.

The following are a few potential steps for consideration to protect trade secrets in the hands of employees working at home:"

The collapse of the information ecosystem poses profound risks for humanity; The Guardian, November 19, 2019

Lydia Polgreen, The Guardian; The collapse of the information ecosystem poses profound risks for humanity

"When the scientists behind the Doomsday clock published their yearly assessment of how close we are to planetary doom, they added a new dimension to the dual threats of nuclear proliferation and climate change, namely “the intentional corruption of the information ecosystem on which modern civilization depends”.

What we’ve seen in recent years isn’t just the collapse of informational authority. It is the destruction of the pact between the purveyors of quality information and the businesses that wanted to reach the consumers of that information...

Just as companies decarbonize their businesses, they should think carefully about how they contribute to the destruction of our information ecosystem and choose to reach consumers on platforms that slow rather than increase the pace of information ecosystem collapse."

Seven Bold Leaders Reveal How Ethical Leadership Is A Boon To Business; Forbes, October 14, 2019

Bruce Weinstein, Forbes; Seven Bold Leaders Reveal How Ethical Leadership Is A Boon To Business

"Ethical leadership in a business benefits the bottom line. It’s also a boon to the people who work for the organization and the people it serves.

The relationship between ethical conduct and benefits is one of the themes of this year’s Global Ethics Day. The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs created this event nine years ago to provide an “opportunity for organizations around the world to hold events on or around this day, exploring the meaning of ethics in international affairs.”

Last year, I observed Global Ethics Day in this column by asking 20 leaders what “ethics” meant to them. Each provided a one-sentence summary. This year we’re stretching out a bit. I asked seven leaders to provide a concrete example or two of how ethical leadership benefits businesses, employees, clients and communities.

Here’s what they said."

‘No Morals’: Advertisers React to Facebook Report; The New York Times, November 15, 2018

Sapna Maheshwari, The New York Times; ‘No Morals’: Advertisers React to Facebook Report

"The revelations may be “the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” said Rishad Tobaccowala, chief growth officer for the Publicis Groupe, one of the world’s biggest ad companies. “Now we know Facebook will do whatever it takes to make money. They have absolutely no morals.”

Marketers have grumbled about Facebook in the past, concerned that advertisements could appear next to misinformation and hate speech on the platform. They have complained about how the company handles consumer data and how it measures ads and its user base. But those issues were not enough to outweigh the lure of Facebook’s vast audience and the company’s insistence that it was trying to address its flaws.

 

And after this article was published online, Mr. Tobaccowala called The New York Times to add to his comments.

 

“The people there do,” he said, referring to possessing morals, “but as a business, they seem to have lost their compass.”"

Privacy By Design Is Important For Every Area Of Your Business; Forbes, April 10, 2018

Heidi Maher, Forbes; Privacy By Design Is Important For Every Area Of Your Business

"The only solution -- the only way to change people’s behavior -- is to embed privacy in the very fabric of the organization. That’s why Privacy by Design, a decades-old application design and development strategy, is now being discussed as a foundational strategy for entire organizations...

Finally, the use of new technologies is evolving so fast it creates significant legal complexity. Who is at fault when an accident involves a self-driving car? Who can access the data collected by a fitness tracker or medical device implant?

While we may not be able to untangle all the legal and regulatory questions yet, we can do a better job of protecting the data. The seven original principles of Privacy by Design -- developed for software engineers by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada, the Dutch Data Protection Authority, and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research – suggest the path forward..."

Ethics And Hacking: What You Need To Know; Forbes, March 6, 2017

Forbes Technology Council, Forbes; 

Ethics And Hacking: What You Need To Know

"The term hacking gets bandied about a great deal in both the industry and in the media. Some stories carry the image of bored tweens, building skills while bragging about tearing up someone else’s hard work. Other stories talk more about offshore groups using server farms to mass phish for information.

The kinds of damage that hackers can cause is as varied as functions of a computer or device: Lost finances, trade secrets, and files swapped or erased are only the tip of what could be done to a person or company. Sometimes, just being one of the few people aware that different companies are talking to each other about business can mean opportunities for the unethical.

So the question gets raised: Can the arts of hacking be used to improve lives on a broader scale, or is it a purely destructive activity? Below, Forbes Technology Council members weigh in on ethics and hacking."