US Government Publishes Its Latest Notorious Markets List of Piracy Sites

The office of the United States Trade Representative published its latest Notorious Markets Report earlier this week. It’s the annual report that outlines the websites and physical market places that cause the most concern for America intellectual property owners, who all make submissions to the USTR before the big Notorious Markets list is published.

The list includes online platforms that mainly exist to facilitate copyright infringement, as well as otherwise legitimate platforms – including social networks, messaging platforms and online marketplaces – which are nevertheless used to share copyright protected works without licence or to sell counterfeit goods.

Plenty of the usual suspects appear again, including stream-ripping sites like FLVTO and MP3juices. Plus the good old Pirate Bay still gets itself a listing.

“As one of the first bittorrent indexing websites and one of the most vocal in openly promoting piracy, The Pirate Bay reportedly remains the most frequently visited bittorrent index site in the world”, the report notes. “The Pirate Bay is available in 35 languages and serves a global market, and it has historically had multiple alternative domains hosted globally”.

The site continues to operate despite web-blocking orders being secured against it by copyright owners in many countries. The USTR report notes that “authorities in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the UK have issued orders blocking access to this site”.

This year’s edition of the report also has a section discussing “the impact of online piracy on US workers”. It states: “Online piracy has real consequences and harms the economic security of workers in the entertainment, media and other creative industries. Pirating of digital media can result in lowered revenues and wages across the industry, impairing workers’ benefits and job security”.

A key aim of the report is to inform governments and regulators around the world about the websites and marketplaces which the US reckons are damaging its IP interests, and which should therefore be subject to regulation or action by relevant agencies in other countries.

The Recording Industry Association Of America was among those welcoming the latest edition of the report earlier this week.

Its CEO Mitch Glazier says: “This year’s Notorious Markets Report shines a much-needed spotlight on the devastating impact of copyright theft on American creators. The core message of today’s report is clear: when creative content is stolen, it not only harms the economy and businesses, it hurts real people. Copyright enforcement is necessary to protect livelihoods”.