US puts streaming rip site on piracy list for the first time
The United States has added Youtube-mp3.org to the list of services the country believes are most notorious for piracy. In addition, the Chinese Taobao marketplace of Alibaba and the Russian VK.com are also on the list.
The United States Trade Representative on Thursday published its Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets for 2016. This is a blacklist of services that the trade body believes are guilty of facilitating copyright infringement and trading counterfeit goods on a large scale. In the report, the authority points to the increase in stream ripping. According to research by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, nearly 30 percent of internet users are guilty of obtaining copies through stream ripping services. The organization has therefore decided for the first time to include a site in the list that facilitates this: Youtube-mp3.
The list also includes the usual cyberlocker services and torrent sites, such as The Pirate Bay, Extratorrent, 4shared and Rarbg. The streaming site Putlocker and e-book sites Libgen and Bookfi are also mentioned. Other notable attendees include Taobao and VK.com.
Taobao is China’s largest online marketplace and owned by internet giant Alibaba. The United States Trade Representative mainly complains about the lack of opportunities for rights holders to report infringements caused by the sale of fake goods. The service would also react poorly to reports that do come in. This is in stark contrast to claims by Alibaba itself: the website of its own accord claims to have taken 380 million product offers and 180,000 Taobao stores offline in one year. Alibaba’s CEO called the list “disappointing” and hinted at the possibility that it was motivated by protectionism.
The Russian social network VK.com is also on the list again. The US trade body does see improvement but still calls the network a hub for infringing activity. VK has entered into licensing agreements with music companies, among other things. Speaking to Torrentfreak, VK says it will make more progress in the fight against piracy in 2017 and that it wants to conclude licensing contracts with more companies.