Washington – The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued
a report that highlights a number of file-sharing and other websites, including
The Pirate Bay, isoHunt and Demonoid, which "exemplify key challenges in
the global struggle against piracy and counterfeiting." "Piracy and
counterfeiting undermine the innovation and creativity that is vital to our
global competitiveness. These notorious markets not only hurt American workers
and businesses, but are threats to entrepreneurs and industries around the
world," said U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
The report lists both
BitTorrent index sites — such as The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, BTjunkie,
Kicasstorrents and Torrentz — and BitTorrent trackers, such as Rutracker, Demonoid,
OpenBitTorrent and Zamunda.
In addition, the report calls out China’s Baidu
search engine for "deep linking" to infringing downloads, and auction
site Taobao for allowing the sale of pirated and counterfeit goods.
The report
does not say that any action against these sites is imminent, but notes that
its findings "may merit further investigation for possible intellectual
property rights infringements."
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/6hsktxg
(U.S. Trade Representative statement)
http://tinyurl.com/495xde7
(TorrentFreak)
