The record industry has welcomed the latest Notorious Markets Report, published by the US Trade Representative last week, which outlines key gripes of the American intellectual property industries, while also naming and shaming websites and digital platforms based outside the US that IP owners reckon are facilitating rampant infringement.
“The 2024 Notorious Markets Report documents the threat copyright piracy poses to US economic security”, says Mitch Glazier, CEO of the Recording Industry Association Of America. “It exposes the ways piracy continues to evolve and the legal contortions criminals use to attempt to hide from liability while charting a strong path forward to protect creators’ rights, American cultural leadership and jobs”.
Although this year’s report puts a particular focus on illicit online pharmacies and counterfeit medicines - what it dubs “a growing threat to public health” - the music industry's piracy concerns are also summarised, with file-sharing platforms like The Pirate Bay and stream-ripping services like Y2mate getting their customary mentions as problematic platforms.
The report also discusses the problem of so called ‘bulletproof’ internet service providers, something raised in the RIAA’s submission to this year’s Notorious Markets consultation. “Bulletproof ISPs are characterised by terms of service that often explicitly advertise leniency in allowing their customers to upload and distribute infringing content”, the report explains.
“Several submissions noted that the reliance of pirate sites on these ISPs made it increasingly difficult for rightholders to remove infringing content”, it adds, with specific bulletproof ISPs referenced including Amarutu, DDoS-Guard, FlokiNET, Squitter Networks and Virtual Systems.
E-commerce platforms and social media that facilitate the sale of physical counterfeit goods - including CDs and vinyl - also get a mention. That includes Singapore-based Shopee, which is commended for introducing various systems to help copyright and trademark owners, but, the report adds, “stakeholders continue to report high volumes of counterfeit goods across some of Shopee’s country platforms where Shopee has not implemented its latest IP enforcement systems”.
This is the last Notorious Markets Report of the Biden administration, of course. Last time Trump was President, Amazon found itself listed among the rogue websites facilitating the sale of counterfeit goods.
Amazon criticised that listing, insisting it was motivated by Trump’s high profile beef with Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, which it probably was. Given Bezos has now joined the tech sector’s big Trump love-in, Amazon presumably won’t appear in the first Notorious Markets Report of the second Trump administration next year. Assuming the love-in lasts that long.