BitTorrent Indexes, Cyberlockers Still Threaten Rights Holders, Says USTR
There were some positive developments noted in the U.S. Trade Representative’s new “Notorious Markets” report (http://xrl.us/bmmh4d), but “piracy and counterfeiting continue to present a serious challenge to ... innovation and creativity,” the agency said Tuesday. Groups representing U.S. copyright holders said the report highlights the need for more accountability and vigilance to protect intellectual property online.
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The agency commended the Chinese website Baidu for entering into an agreement with record labels to reduce the amount of infringing goods and services sold through its site. But Chinese websites like Taobao, Sogou MP3 and Gougou continue to offer infringing products and “deeplinks” to infringing music files and torrents, the agency said. The new notorious-markets review is the second USTR has performed “out of cycle” from its annual Special 301 report.
Enormously popular BitTorrent index sites like The Pirate Bay, IsoHunt, Btjunkie, Kat.ph and torrentz.eu continue to “facilitate the download of unauthorized content,” the report said. Despite U.S. efforts to shut down the foreign sites, they're all ranked among the top 500 websites in global traffic, according to Alexa.com.
Cyberlockers are also becoming a concern for enabling the widespread distribution of unauthorized content, the report said. Sites like Hong Kong-based Megaupload -- which is suing Universal Music Group for bad-faith takedown of its promotional music video from YouTube -- and U.K.-based Putlocker continue to reward users for streaming and downloading allegedly infringing video files, it said.
The MPAA on Tuesday said the report “demonstrates the need for Congress to take action against rogue websites that are causing so much damage to American workers and businesses.” Such markets, whether in the online or physical world, “are a direct threat to the millions of hard-working Americans and the tens of thousands of businesses that rely on [intellectual property] for their livelihoods,” the group said.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) commended the agency for highlighting the “need for accountability in the online space and continuing vigilance in physical piracy markets,” IIPA Counsel Steven Metalitz said Tuesday. The effort “requires stronger laws and stricter law enforcement in foreign countries hosting notorious marketplaces, whether online or in the physical world,” he said. “It also requires all actors in the copyright value chain to take greater responsibility toward finding solutions to the growing problem of online and physical copyright theft.”
The report “reinforces the urgent and imminent need for legislation to combat the worst-of-the-worst online IP thieves,” said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “That is why we need rogue sites legislation now -- to give our courts the ability to cut off foreign criminals from the U.S. marketplace. The Senate’s PROTECT IP Act and the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act provide reasonable and effective means in which to update the IP enforcement toolkit.”