A List Of The World’s Top Piracy Sites
The newest listing of top global markets for piracy and counterfeiting from the United States Trade Representatives contains a few surprises. Most notably China's Baidu is no longer listed after new deals to create a paid music service seemt to be moving forward. The World's Top Piracy Sites:
2011 Notorious Markets List – The list below identifies particular markets in which pirated or counterfeit goods are reportedly available, but is not intended to be an exhaustive listing of all notorious markets around the world. Rather, the list highlights some of the most prominent examples reported to USTR of notorious markets in each of the categories referenced below.
A significant number of the markets identified in this report are reportedly located in China and the Eastern European region.
Pay-per-download:These websites exemplify the problem of online sales of pirated music on a pay-per-download basis.
Allofmp3 clones: While the Russia-based allofmp3 (formerly the world's largest server-based pirate music website) was shut down in 2007, sites that are nearly identical, many of which appear to be owned by the same parties, have taken its place. These websites appear to be designed to confuse consumers by operating much like popular, legitimate sites.
Linking: These are online services engaged in "deep linking" to allegedly infringing material that is often stored on third-party hosting sites.
Sogou MP3: China-based Sogou MP3 reportedly provides easy access to deeplinks of music files for downloading or streaming, and reportedly ignores rights holders' notices to take down infringing material.
Gougou: Industry reports that this China-based website actively provides users with deeplinks to infringing music files and torrent links from unauthorized sources.
B2B and B2C: Commenters has reported that these Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) websites offer a wide range of infringing products (such as cigarettes, clothing, manufactured goods, pharmaceutical products and sporting goods) to consumers and businesses.
Taobao: Several commenters reported that pirated and counterfeit goods continue to be widely available on China-based Taobao. While stakeholders report that Taobao continues to make significant efforts to address the problem, they recognize that much remains to be done. Taobao was recently listed as one of the top 16 most visited sites in the world, and one of the top three most visited sites in China, according to rankings published at Alexa.com.
Modchip.ca and Consolesource: Both sites, reportedly based in Canada, allegedly sell circumvention devices and components used to circumvent technological protection measures on game consoles.
BitTorrent Indexing: Although BitTorrent indexing sites can be used for lawful purposes, such sites can also be used for the high-speed locating and downloading of allegedly infringing materials from other users. The sites identified below are examples of sites allegedly being used for unlawful purposes.
ThePirateBay: Despite the criminal conviction of its founders, the Sweden-based ThePirateBay continues to facilitate the download of unauthorized content. ThePirateBay recently ranked among the top 100 websites in both global and U.S. traffic, according to Alexa.com.
IsoHunt: Canada-based IsoHunt is one of the largest BitTorrent indexes in the world, ranking among the top 300 websites in global traffic and among the top 600 in U.S. traffic, according to Alexa.com. At least one U.S. court has found liability in cases involving IsoHunt.
Btjunkie: This site, which reportedly is based in Sweden and the Netherlands, is among the largest and most visited aggregators of public and non-public "torrents," ranking among the top 500 in the world and in the U.S. according to Alexa.com, which find and initiate the downloading process for particular files.
Kat.ph (formerly kickasstorrents): Another popular indexing site, this site, which reportedly is based in Canada, Ukraine and Romania, is notable for its commercial look and feel. The site is currently ranked by Alexa.com among the 320 most visited sites in the world.
torrentz.eu (formerly torrentz.com): This site, which reportedly is based in Canada, Panama and Switzerland, is a major aggregator of torrents from other BitTorrent sites, and currently ranks among the top 150 sites in the world.
BitTorrent Trackers: Although BitTorrent trackers can be used for lawful purposes, such sites can also be used to transfer allegedly infringing material, by directing users to peers who share the infringing content. The sites listed below are examples of sites allegedly being used for unlawful purposes.
Rutracker: Russia-based Rutracker recently ranked by Alexa.com among that country's 15 most visited sites, and among the 300 most visited sites in the world, and reportedly allows for the fast identification and download of pirated content.
Demonoid: Ukraine-based Demonoid recently ranked among the top 600 websites in global traffic and the top 300 in U.S. traffic, according to Alexa.com. Recent action by the Mexican Attorney General led to the arrest of the site's administrator.
Pirated, Counterfiet – these words are intentionally misleading. C’mon US government, get with the times – art wants to be free. Stop taking cues & bribes from lobbyists.
So artists shouldn’t be paid for their work?
this goes way beyond the simple argument of “the artist should get paid” and “everything should be free”. yes artists should be funded to continue their work, but there is a lot of greed in business that is pretty obvious by now. the big corporations and industries don’t want the evolution of digital media to happen without them because they are greedy, and they want all the monies, “sad but true” (ironic quote?). services like Spotify i think are only scratching the surface of the new digital media delivery, and we need to evolve in that direction, but as long as the fighting continues, evolution will be stifled.
It’s their own fault (record industry and other greedy industries) for not paying attention. When the original free Napster was in full swing, the record executives had their heads up their derriere and didn’t even know what an mp3 file was
Now in cases where people in the industry leak files out that haven’t been released, that seems quite mean spirited, because most mp3 files on file sharing sites come from an original copy that’s been purchased first, at least in the USA. Elsewhere around the world, illegal file sharing is way more rampant.
Even if you are someone like Madonna, Diana Ross, U2, if you take a look at their books, most of their sustainable lucrative earnings have come from their live performances and merchandising. Madonna made $320 million in one year from her live performances and marketing, but she also is a very smart business person.
I agree with the fact that artists should be paid for their work but at the same time they need to adapt to the digital age and get with the program. In one way I see a mp3 download is one more potential follower / fan / customer if they like the song.
So in that sense, if I copy some songs for someone, then that person becomes a huge fanatic and buys all their albums and attends concerts and the whole time promotes they’re new found favorite artist, then I would say sharing that song did good for the the artist and the consumer.