News

MPAA Eyes Piracy Sites in Russia, Netherlands (CDSA)

By Chris Tribbey

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has singled out the online piracy sites causing the entertainment industry the most trouble nowadays, with Russia and The Netherlands among the countries hosting the most offending digital outlets.

In its annual report to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), identifying the world’s “most notorious markets” for distributing infringing content, the MPAA listed the cyberlockers, streaming and linking sites, peer-to-peer networks and BitTorrent portals that are most damaging to Hollywood.

Joanna McIntosh, EVP of global policy and external affairs for MPAA, said the American motion picture and TV industry supported nearly 2 million jobs and $113 billion in wages in 2013, and that there are now more than 450 unique online (legitimate) services for Hollywood content worldwide.

“But despite the growing legal online marketplace that benefits both consumers and creators, a wide range of complex and sophisticated illegitimate marketplaces operate around the world, distributing infringing content and profiting off others’ hard work,” she said in a statement. “These notorious markets weaken America’s global competitiveness by discouraging investment and undermining the growth of legitimate services. They also threaten consumer safety by spreading malware.

“We believe that the size and scope of this problem, as outlined in our filing, make clear that the best solutions will require the cooperation of all members of the online community — from creators and payment processors to ISPs and search engines.”

That’s one of the main issues MPAA brings up in its report to the USTR: some website operators and intermediaries operate “anonymously and outside the boundaries of the law,” and without all Internet stakeholders (hosting providers, ad networks, payment processors and search engines) working together, online content theft will continue to blossom.

On the direct download and cyberlocker side, MPAA singled out six top offenders, two from Russia (Rapidgator.net and VK.com) and two from The Netherlands (Letitbit.net and Uploaded.net). For sites like Letitbit.net, the MPAA seemed especially concerned, due to how uploaders of content are paid around $60 per upload, and how downloaders get paid as well ($15 per 1,000 downloads). The site also maintains a deal with Moevideo.net, where people are paid for views. Rapidgator.net in Russia has a similar reward system in place, along with paid subscription tiers.

Uploaded.net (based in both The Netherlands and Switzerland) incentivizes users to upload large files by paying out rewards based on file size, and generates approximately $6.6 million in annual revenue, MPAA reported. Russia’s VK.com, a leading social networking site in Russia and Russian speaking territories, is “a hotbed of illegal distribution of movie, television and music files,” facilitating streaming playback through embedded video players.

International-based Nowvideo.sx offers uploaders $20 per 1,000 downloads and systematically “refuse[s] to comply with takedown notices,” MPAA reported, leaving rights holders with no way to remove infringing content. In Romania, MPAA pointed to Videomega.tv, which is “masked behind a proxy service to curb rights holders’ ability to identify its precise host,” MPAA reported.

On the linking and streaming Web site side, MPAA listed Cuevana.tv in Argentina, Kinogo.co in the Ukraine, Megafilmeshd.net out of Brazil, Poland and Bulgaria, Movie4k.to from Romania and The Netherlands, Pelis24.com from multiple countries, Primewire.ag from France and Sweden, Putlocker.is in Switzerland and Vietnam, Solarmovie.is in Canada and Latvia, Estonia’s Viooz, and Watchseries.lt from Switzerland as the top worldwide offenders.

For peer-to-peer and BitTorrent sites, MPAA focused on those offering high-quality, newly released content, and a familiar name showed up: Sweden’s The Pirate Bay. Now ThePirateBay.gd, it’s one of the largest BitTorrent sites around, available in 35 languages, serving more than 43.5 million peers. Despite several legal judgments against it, the site continues to exist thanks to constant relocation of its home domain.

Rounding out the MPAA’s worst offender list for BitTorrent and P2P sites: Extratorrent.cc in Ukraine, Rutracker.org in Russia, Torrentz.eu in Poland and Yts.to and Kat.cr in several locations.

Lastly, the MPAA made note of several physical markets where burned or pressed infringing DVDs and Blu-ray Discs are regularly sold. The locations include street markets in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, in Brazil, flea markets in Toronto, the Harco Glodok market in Jakarta, Indonesia, the Jonesborough Market in Northern Ireland, two markets in the Ukraine (7 Kilometer Open Market, Odessa, and the Barabashovo Open Market in Kharkov), two markets in Moscow, and a host of different markets throughout Thailand, India and Mexico.

“These markets are an immediate threat to legitimate commerce, impairing legitimate markets’ viability and curbing U.S. competitiveness,” the MPAA concludes. “We strongly support efforts by the U.S. government to work with trading partners to protect and enforce intellectual property rights and, in so doing, protect U.S. jobs.”