US place torrent sites on list of “notorious markets”

For the first time, torrent indexers and trackers are explicitly mentioned on the annual list of “notorious markets” published by the US Trade Representative. The list aims to give an overview of the locations, both online and offline, where counterfeit goods or infringing content is exchanged on a large scale.

Torrent search engines and trackers have been included as a separate category for the first time this year. The report states that, although the technology is well suited for legitmate use, infringing content is exchanged on a large scale using these platforms. The Pirate Bay, IsoHunt, Kickasstorrents and torrentz.com are mentioned by name as popular indexers. Examples of named trackers are rutracker, demonoid and publicbt.

The list categorises different kinds of markets and provides examples with every category. In many cases, the overview emphasises, the market is not an infringing institution in itself, but nevertheless host to many infringing exchanges. The term market is used loosely, meaning a place where supply and demand come together.

The diversity in online markets receives most of the attention in the overview. Cyberlockers, online trading platforms like the Chinese site Taobao, infringing pay-per-download sites, the infamous deep-linking Chinese search engine Baidu and some social networks like the Russian vKontakte are mentioned as loci for the exchange of infringing or counterfeit goods. The inclusion of smartphone apps as a category stands out as well. As an example the site 91.com is named, a site that provides access to apps that do not compensate rights holders.

The list also contains a list of physical markets that see a lot of counterfeit goods exchange hands. It is interesting to observe that the centre of gravity of the online markets lies on Russia and China, while the physical markets are mostly located in Latin America and the south of Asia.