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U.S. Government's List of Notorious 'Piracy' Markets is a Mixed BagErnesto Van der Sar, 19 Jan 07:46 PM Every year, the US Trade Representative (UST

U.S. Government's List of Notorious 'Piracy' Markets is a Mixed Bag Ernesto Van der Sar, 19 Jan 07:46 PM Every year, the US Trade Representative (USTR) publishes a list of 'notorious markets' that facilitate online piracy and other copyright crimes. The targeted sites and services engage in or promote piracy and counterfeiting. According to the copyright holder reports the list is based on, at least. For more than a decade we have covered the online part of the report. Traditionally, that includes prominent torrent sites, download portals, cyberlockers, and streaming services that operate without the permission of rightsholders. In recent years, however, the scope of the report has broadened. For example, we have seen domain registrars, hosting companies, advertisers, and social media platforms being added. These don't have piracy as their core business, but they allegedly facilitate this activity. A few days ago, the USTR published its 2020 list of notorious markets. Again, we can clearly see the trend that the scope of the report is broadening. This was somewhat expected, as this year's issue focus is 'e-commerce platforms.' "This year's issue focus examines how the substantial growth of e-commerce platforms in recent years has facilitated similar substantial growth in the importation of counterfeit and pirated goods into the United States," the USTR writes in its report. Amazon Traditionally, the USTR focuses on foreign sites and services. While that distinction was no longer made in the recent public consultation, the latest report remains targeted at companies that operate abroad. This doesn't mean, however, that US-based companies are completely ignored. Amazon, for example, is tagged as a "notorious market" but this classification is limited to its foreign domains such as amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, and amazon.es. Copyright holders have filed a variety of complaints about Amazon. They say that the platform failed to properly vet sellers, is often abused to sell pirated and counterfeit goods, while repeat infringers can open multiple stores. These complaints are not new and Amazon has tried to address the problems over the years. This includes participation in an anti-counterfeit program from the US Governments's IPR Center, but that's still not enough according to rightsholders. More Ecommerce Amazon is not the only e-commerce giant to be branded as a notorious market. The USTR highlights several of the largest online storefronts across the world that reportedly face similar issues. MercadoLibre, for example, the largest e-commerce retailer in Latin America which is incorporated in the US. The report also mentions Shopee which is the leading player in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. The list of e-commerce targets is completed by Bukalapak.com, DHgate.com, Haraj.com.sa, Pinduoduo.com, Snapdeal.com, Taobao.com, Tokopedia.com and Weidian.com. All should improve their anti-piracy and counterfeiting policies. Hosting, Advertising and Social Media The USTR further calls out several sites and services that reportedly facilitate piracy. This includes hosting companies that reportedly ignore takedown requests, such as BlueAngelHost, FlokiNET, and Private Layer. Russia's dominant social media platform VK.com falls in this category as well, together with the advertising company RevenueHits. The latter is accused of providing pirate sites with a steady income source. Interestingly, the report notes that many pirate site advertisers operate from Israel, which also applies to RevenueHits. "According to right holders, RevenueHits is one of the most popular advertising networks among pirate sites, in particular cyberlockers, with most of its advertisements targeting a European audience," the report reads. The Pirate Bay and other 'Usual' Targets The Notorious Markets list wouldn't be complete without more traditional pirate sites. On that front there is little fresh news this year, with the usual suspects such as The Pirate Bay, Fmovies, Rapidgator, and Sci-Hub all making an appearance. "As one of the first bittorrent indexing websites and one of the most vocal in openly promoting piracy, ThePirateBay reportedly remains the most frequently visited bittorrent index site in the world," the USTR writes. After a short period of absence, the BitTorrent-powered streaming application Popcorn Time returned to the list as well. A full list of all the pirate sites and services mentioned is available below. Critique A common critique on the Notorious Markets List (NML) is that it's mostly based on complaints from rightsholders. The USTR itself doesn't verify these claims in detail, despite the strong implications the report may have. "The NML does not make findings of legal violations nor does it reflect the U.S. Government's analysis of the general IP protection and enforcement climate in the countries connected with the listed markets," the USTR clarifies. While most pirate sites are unlikely to respond to the USTR's report, Amazon and other billion-dollar companies will likely rebut the claims in the coming weeks. — A copy of the USTR's 2020 overview of notorious markets is available here (pdf). The full list of highlighted online sites/service, including those focused on counterfeiting, is as follows: Torrent Sites -1337x.to -Dytt8.net -RARBG.to -Rutracker.org -Thepiratebay.org Cyberlockers -1Fichier.com -Chomikuj.pl -Rapidgator.net -Uploaded.net -Uptobox.com E-commerce -Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, and Amazon.in -Bukalapak.com -DHgate.com -Haraj.com.sa (new) -Mercadolibre.com (new) -Pinduoduo.com -Shopee.sg -Snapdeal.com -Taobao.com -Tokopedia.com -Weidian.com (new) Advertising -Revenuehits.com (new) Cloud storage – Baidu Wangpan (new) Streaming / IPTV -Bestbuyiptv.com -Chaloos -FMovies.is -Pelisplus (new) -Phimmoi.net -Popcorn Time (new) -Seasonvar.ru -Shabakaty (new) Hosting -BlueAngelHost (new) -FlokiNET -Private Layer Social Media -VK.com Streamripping -Flvto.biz and 2Conv.com -Mp3juices.cc Gaming -Mpgh.net Music -Newalbumreleases.net Publishing -Sci-Hub and LibGen From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Russia Adds 1,768 Pirate Site Domains to WIPO Advertising Blacklist Andy Maxwell, 19 Jan 11:48 AM Anti-piracy measures come in all shapes and sizes, from domain seizures and blocking to civil prosecutions and criminal enforcement. While these are all weapons in the arsenal, the growing use of the so-called "follow-the-money" approach is now considered to be one of the more powerful disruption options. Given the increasingly commercial nature of a growing number of pirate services, the theory is that by cutting off revenue there will be less incentive for their owners to keep them going. Since the majority use some kind of advertising to generate profit, helping advertisers to avoid pirate platforms is now a global operation. One of the more recent initiatives involves the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), which in 2019 launched its 'BRIP' Database, short for "Building Respect for Intellectual Property." Later relabeled as the WIPO ALERT database, the project receives input from authorized contributors from WIPO Member States and the advertising industry itself to build a list of copyright-infringing sites to be avoided. Russia Joins The Program, Gets Busy In September 2020, Russia announced it would begin participating in the WIPO ALERT program. Telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor said that it would be forwarding the domain names of sites where copyright works had been "repeatedly and illegally posted." This threshold appeared to be in line with Russia's own site-blocking program, which requires a site to be labeled a repeat infringer following court processes before it is subjected to the strongest anti-piracy measures such as ISP blocking and search engine delisting. After four months of membership, Russia says it has just made a sizeable contribution to the WIPO database via local telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor, based on these parameters. "Roscomnadzor has entered 1,768 domain addresses of sites that are persistent copyright infringers into the ALERT database of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)," Roscomnadzor announced Monday. According to the report, the domains were steadily added to WIPO ALERT between October and December 2020 in line with the terms of the memorandum of understanding signed between WIPO and Roscomnadzor in September. As previously indicated, all of the sites had previously been determined to be repeat infringers following court processes and are already blocked by local ISPs. "For each of the resources [added to the database], the Moscow City Court previously made decisions to restrict access on a permanent basis in Russia in accordance with Article 15.6 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ 'On Information, Information Technology and Information Protection'," Roscomnadzor confirmed. Concerns Over Transparency Persist While Russia is very clear on the parameters required for a site to be entered on the WIPO ALERT database (due process and multiple court decisions, for example) the same cannot be said about other contributors to the project. Indeed, in common with similar advertising blacklists operated locally, the domains submitted are kept secret and only accessible to a limited set of eyes. "Access to the database is open to any genuine advertising industry business which is willing to undertake to use the information solely for preventing the appearance of advertising on pirate web sites," WIPO says. The UN agency also promises its best efforts to keep the submitted domains confidential, noting that some countries feel that their lists of copyright-infringing websites should not be publicized, "to avoid encouraging visits to those sites." While this is arguably a valid concern, the lack of transparency can also be an issue since mistakes do get made. To its credit, Ukraine makes its list of infringing sites available to the public but after a close examination, TorrentFreak discovered the worrying inclusion of Twitch on the blacklist. Following our report, Twitch's domain was removed from the list and spared what could've been a silent advertising ban. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. ©2021 TorrentFreak | Office 21338 PO Box 4336 Manchester, North West M61 0BW United Kingdom Web Version   Preferences   Forward   Unsubscribe     Powered by Mad Mimi®A GoDaddy® company