Reefa Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 Every year the US Government pinpoints some of the largest piracy websites and other copyright-infringing venues. The USTR calls on foreign countries to take appropriate action in response, but not all are convinced of the objectivity of the "notorious markets" list. China's commerce ministry, for one, notes that the US claims lack conclusive evidence and relevant data. Late last week, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) released an updated version of its “Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets,” identifying some of the worst IP-offenders worldwide. The overview is largely based on input from major copyright holders and related industry groups. While the US Government admits that it doesn’t make any judgments, the list carries a lot of weight and can hurt the image of companies that are singled out. For some of the ‘classic’ pirate sites such as The Pirate Bay, this doesn’t really matter. On the contrary, they may see it as a badge of honor. However, for billion-dollar businesses such as Alibaba and VK, it’s a different story. They are not at risk of being the target of a criminal prosecution, as some classic pirate sites are, but the listing will make them a hot topic on the political agenda. Interestingly, it seems that not all countries are happy with seeing some of their top companies being singled out. When China’s commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng was confronted with the fact that Alibaba and its Taobao.com site were listed, he made some noteworthy observations. “In the report, the U.S. frequently discusses the relevant Chinese businesses with the words like ‘reportedly,’ ‘according to authoritative sources’ and the like,” Feng told the local press. In its report, the US Government stressed that Alibaba should do more to combat counterfeiting and piracy on Taobao.com and other platforms, but China’s officials don’t seem convinced. “It lacked conclusive evidence and had no relevant figures to back up its points. We have no choice but to express our doubts about the objectivity and reliability of the department that issued the report,” Feng added. China’s commerce ministry has a point. The USTR report is compiled from comments that are provided by copyright holders. These are not thoroughly vetted, as far as we know, which doesn’t seem very objective. Even more concerning, copyright holders often cite the USTR’s notorious markets list in legal and lobbying efforts, even though they are in essence their own findings in a rewritten form. While that may be very convenient, it can also be misleading. Alibaba itself went a step further than the commerce ministry and noted that the company is being used as a “scapegoat” in a geopolitical game. In a detailed ten-page rebuttal, the marketplace responded to the allegations point by point. “As a result of the rise of trade protectionism, Alibaba has been turned into a scapegoat by the USTR to win points in a highly-politicized environment and their actions should be recognized for what they are,” the company commented. “The USTR’s actions made it clear that the Notorious Markets List, which only targets non-US marketplaces, is not about intellectual property protection, but just another instrument to achieve the US Government’s geopolitical objectives.” Critique on the USTR’s Special 301 reports, which the Notorious Markets lists are part of, is not new. Earlier this year Canada’s Government described the process as flawed as it’s mainly driven by one-sided copyright industry claims. “Canada does not recognize the validity of the Special 301 and considers the process and the Report to be flawed,” a Government memo read. source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
straycat19 Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 I use this list as a basis to block websites not only for our LAN but for the WAN, so whether it is accurate or not I don't really care. It is just a place to start and the same for people who are interested in pirating things. So it serves a dual purpose, right or wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted January 22, 2018 Share Posted January 22, 2018 17 hours ago, straycat19 said: I use this list as a basis to block websites not only for our LAN but for the WAN, so whether it is accurate or not I don't really care. It is just a place to start and the same for people who are interested in pirating things. So it serves a dual purpose, right or wrong. If you have too start blocking the Internet at you're work. it just shows you're company is not keeping tabs on what there employees be doing . If i owned a big company i would know everything they done while on the clock and if i caught them goofing off , id take dispensary action. The US Govt has been doing these list Since 2006, they never blocked no websites they not the UK or AU , they just use the NSA to watch whats going on and if they catch them pirating or doing something they shouldn't on a Government computer they take dispensary action, they even have special federal laws on this that don't apply to the private sector , that you could serve time in a Federal prison. In the private sector it's only a civil crime but a employer still has the right to get rid of people for goofing off and breaking the law be it civil or criminal. As many people as they are looking for jobs now days, it would just give a employer and excuse to fire someone that been working there for 30 years and get rid of there benefits package . All jokes aside many major U.S. companies block Google , Facebook and everything else that is not needed at there work place as far back as 2009 they said like 54 percent block Facebook . Is that why you be hiding out on here all the time lol? Some use a professional service like Barracuda to do blocks . http://www.barracudacentral.org/rbl http://www.barracudacentral.org/data/web Here you are saying you use the Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets lmao i know tons of sites i can dl what ever i want not on that list, I even pay for a package that will let me download from many of these sites on this list and if you blocked them i just sign in and download anyway because it bypasses the sites they can block the whole USA and i can still dl from them lol . How many filelocker sites did the US Government close down since 2006? only 2 i know of Hotfile and Megaupload and some more got chicken and ran with the money that's called the Streisand effect soon after the Hydra effect took it's place and 2 opened up for every one closed down . The UK don't even block filelockers they just block some sites that have there links you can use the Tor Browser,proxy , change DNS , Use a VPN , etc and get the links and download all you want. No one takes this list serious and never has lol. It was one guy who gave filelockers more problem than any Government or Hollywood ever did he got there paypal accounts banned . He was a big shot in the porn industry they called him Adult King, he ran a site called Stop Filelockers and he don't do the site no more, but i see him around from time to time. He should be in jail for being a pimp they should not give people who do porn legal protection lol . https://torrentfreak.com/stopfilelockers-anti-piracy-outfit-announces-imminent-shutdown-131002/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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