U.S. Trade Representative Lists the Most Notorious Piracy Threats

The Office of the United States Trade Representative has published its annual list of problematic piracy websites and other "notorious markets." This year's overview includes the usual suspects operating in the torrent and streaming sectors, as well as some intermediaries, including various hosting companies. The USTR hopes that by highlighting the threats, platform operators or foreign authorities will take action.

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) published its annual “Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets” a few hours ago.

The non-exhaustive list includes dozens of sites and services linked to piracy or counterfeiting activity.

The report is largely based on input from copyright industry groups, including the RIAA and MPA. Platforms detailed in recommendations filed late last year, are meant to serve as ‘prominent and illustrative examples’ without the USTR drawing any legal conclusions.

Complex Ecosystem & Familiar Names

The review acknowledges that rightsholders described a complex piracy ecosystem, one that goes beyond traditional websites with technology companies and services also playing a role. Those include domain registries and registrars, search engines, reverse proxies, payment processors, and hosting companies.

Many third-party intermediaries were nominated in last year’s submissions but despite the mentions, the USTR hasn’t included many in its final overview. This will be welcomed by the i2Coalition, which previously cautioned against blurring the piracy lines.

Overall, the latest list includes many familiar names, some of which have been listed for well over a decade. The Pirate Bay makes an expected appearance, alongside fellow torrent sites 1337x, TorrentGalaxy, RuTracker, and YTS.

The listed torrent sites are identical to those listed in last year’s report. The same applies to ‘cyberlockers’, which include Krakenfiles and Rapidgator. The mentioned publishing sites, LibGen and Sci-Hub, didn’t change either.

The e-commerce platforms also remain completely unchanged in the latest report. While the USTR sees some positive developments in this industry, Baidu Wangpan, DHgate, Pinduoduo, Shopee, and others remain listed.

New Additions to the List

There are some shakeups in the video game scene, however, with Fitgirl-Repacks and Unknowncheats as new additions. Both sites were flagged by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) last October.

“FitGirl-Repacks, often abbreviated to ‘fitgirl’ is a well-known ‘repacking’ site that provides access to compressed versions of unauthorized and pirated versions of video games,” the USTR notes.

USTR about Fitgirl
 

There’s also a new streamripper, Y2Mate, thanks to a nomination by the RIAA. The site replaces ssyoutube.com, which was taken off the list.

The list of newcomers is completed by hosting provider Virtual Systems and two streaming services, MagisTV and Hianime. The latter replaces Aniwatch, which was taken down following the demise of the Fmovies piracy ring last summer.

USTR Applauds Successes

The Fmovies case is mentioned in detail by the USTR, described as one of the major piracy successes in 2024. This takedown was carried out by Vietnamese authorities, with key input from U.S. rightsholders and authorities.

“In Vietnam, the Hanoi Police collaborated with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (ICHIP) program, and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) to shut down the site Fmovies and associated piracy sites in July and August 2024,” USTR notes.

Other positive developments include the conviction of the operator of BestBuyIPTV in Vietnam, Brazil’s seventh installment of anti-piracy “Operation 404”, and the Italian-led IPTV crackdown “Operation Taken Down“.

Almost Success: Cuevana

Finally, there is one site that deserves a special mention; Cuevana. This brand has been around for many years as new versions typically come online when others are taken offline.

The USTR’s report now lists Cuevana.biza after being nominated by the movie industry. This is somewhat unusual, as the site announced a voluntary shutdown a few weeks ago, citing pressure from the MPA and ACE. Purportedly, Cuevana was offering to sign over its domain names.

This shutdown never came to fruition, however. A message currently displayed on the site’s front page says that ACE merely sent an automated reply to Cuevana’s outreach, but didn’t respond otherwise. A follow-up reportedly remains unanswered too.

“In the last message, we kindly asked for the information to be passed on to the person in charge, but they again have not responded to us,” Cuevana.biz writes.

“I don’t know if the intention is to let us continue with the sites, but a week ago we should have already delivered one of the domains they requested..,” the site’s message adds.

Message for the MPA
 

Whether the message is sincere is hard to gauge. Technically, Cuevana could’ve put up a static page displaying this notice, instead of keeping the site running. But it’s worth pointing out anyway.

Perhaps it will result in another ‘positive development’, which the USTR can highlight in next year’s version of the notorious markets report.

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A copy of the USTR’s 2024 Review of Notorious Markets is available here (pdf). The full overview also includes offline markets.

A list of highlighted sites and online services, including those listed for counterfeiting, is included below. The sites mentioned are categorized by TorrentFreak for clarity purposes and listed below.

Torrent Sites

– 1337X
– RuTracker
– The Pirate Bay
– TorrentGalaxy
– YTS.mx

File-Hosting/Cyberlockers

– 1fichier
– Krakenfiles
– Rapidgator
– Savefrom

E-Commerce

– Baidu Wangpan
– Bukalapak
– DHgate
– Indiamart
– Pinduoduo
– Shopee
– Taobao

PaaS

– 2embed
– Streamtape
– WHMCS Smarters

Advertising

– Avito

Streaming /IPTV

– Aniwatch
– BestBuyIPTV
– Cuevana3
– Fmovies
– GenIPTV
– Hianime (new)
– MagisTV (new)
– Pelisplus
– Shabakaty
– Spider
– VegaMovies

Hosting/Infrastructure

– Amaratu
– DDoS-Guard
– FlokiNET
– Squitter
– Virtual Systems (new)

Social Media

– VK.
– WeChat
Gaming

– NSW2U
– Firgirl-Repacks (new)
– Unknowncheats (new)

Music

– SSYouTube
– Y2Mate (new)

Publishing

– Libgen
– Sci-Hub

Source

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