USTR: Piracy, Counterfeiting Abroad Is Thriving

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative provided copyright and trademark holders with fresh evidence to demonstrate the scope of online infringement they face from pirates and counterfeiters based offshore.

USTR released a new report outlining the most notorious infringers based outside the United States. "Globally copyright piracy on a commercial scale and trademark counterfeiting continue to thrive, in part because of the presence of marketplaces that deal in goods and services that infringe intellectual property rights," according to the USTR report. The report includes a list of sites offering pirated music, links to pirated content, sites that provide illegal streaming of live events such as professional sports, cyber lockers where pirated content can be stored and accessed, and social networking sites such as Russia's vKontakte, where users can provide access to infringing materials.