Responding to a request from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), various copyright holder groups have submitted their annual overviews of ‘notorious’ markets.
These submissions help to guide the U.S. Government’s position toward foreign countries when it comes to copyright enforcement.
Earlier today we covered how ESA reported several game-specific threats, including ROM sites and cheater portals, and on the heels of that comes the MPAA’s submission.
In its letter, Hollywood’s industry group notes that its list is not meant to be comprehensive, it’s mostly an overview of pirate sources that are prime examples of the rampant copyright infringement problems that exist on the Internet.
Browsing through the submission, we see many of the usual targets, including torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, RARBG, 1337x, Rutracker, and Torrentz2. The Chinese P2P client Xunlei also makes a comeback, after it failed to reach an agreement with the MPAA.
What’s new this year is a focus on IPTV services, which are seen as an emerging threat. The MPAA notes that it has identified more than a thousand of these platforms around the world.
“An emerging global threat is piracy from illegal internet protocol television (IPTV) services that provide stolen telecommunication signals/channels to a global audience via dedicated web portals, third-party applications and piracy devices configured to access the service,” the industry group writes.
The MPAA specifically highlights BestBuyIPTV.com, GoIPTV.me, and TVMucho.com, adding that most of these services generate their revenue through subscriptions. They provide access to hundreds, if not thousands, of TV-channels as well as video on demand content.
Another category covers linking and streaming websites. These operate from various countries around the world and include B9good.com, Cda.pl, Dytt8.net, Dy2018.com, Filmeseseriesonline.net, Fmovies.is, Indoxx1.com, Kinogo.cc, and Pelispedia.tv.
Direct download sites and video hosting services also get a mention. Openload.co, Rapidgator.net, Uploaded.net, Rapidvideo.com, Streamango.com, Uploaded.net, Uptobox.com, and the Russian social network VK.com are all listed.
Many of these services refuse to properly process takedown notices, the MPAA claims.
The final category covers piracy devices and apps, including streaming boxes. These allow users to conveniently stream pirated content, and include 3DBoBoVR, TVPlus, TVBrowser, and KuaiKan, which are particularly popular in Asia.
In addition to sites and services that directly offer access to pirated content, the Hollywood group also points a finger towards third-party intermediaries, including hosting providers and advertising networks.
The Panama-based host Private Layer is called out specifically and the same is true for the Canadian advertising network WWWPromoter. Both were also highlighted in the MPAA’s submission last year.
The MPAA’s full report is available here (pdf). The USTR will use this input above to make up its own list of notorious markets. This will help to identify current threats and call on foreign governments to take appropriate action.
