US Film Industry Gives USTR List Of Biggest IP Infringers

The Motion Picture Association of America has provided a list to the US Trade Representative’s office of the global websites the US film group says are the most copyright-infringing in the world.

The list, includes dozens of offenders around the world, such as peer-to-peer networks, bit torrent portals, infringing download and streaming hubs, linking websites and newsgroups, as well as physical markets located in the Ukraine, Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, Ireland, Brazil, Russia, Thailand, Mexico and India, according to the MPAA submission.

The list was submitted to the USTR “notorious markets” list,under the Special 301 process, in the form of a letter that makes claims of extremely high levels of financial loss due to piracy, though without citing the data sources for the claims.

MPAA chronicled successful efforts to shut down or deter infringers, but acknowledged that in many cases new ones popped up. The list includes The Pirate Bay as having a particularly high rate of use with tens of millions of visitors to the bit torrent tracker on the internet, and details its ability to continue operations despite a series of legal setbacks and prosecutions.

The film group also hailed the defeat of the Megaupload download and streaming hub, saying that an increase in legitimate sales was recorded immediately afterward, though an increase in the use of other unauthorised sites was also noted, in particular Putlocker (UK). Another site is VKontakte in Russia, which was named the leading social networking site in Russian-speaking territories and one of the most-visited sites in the world.

MPAA members are: Walt Disney Studios; Paramount Pictures; Sony Pictures; Twentieth Century Fox; Universal City Studios; and Warner Bros.

USTR enforcement actions during the year usually closely reflect the contributions of US insdusty.