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USTR Publishes Rogue Sites List
bs0d3 writes "The U.S. Government has classified some of the largest websites on the Internet as examples of sites which sustain global piracy. The list released by the United States Trade Representative draws exclusively on input from rightsholders. It includes popular torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, file-hosting service Megaupload, and Russia's leading social network VKontakte. VKontakte says that company's copyright problems are in the past after a deal was made with the USTR. Also, for the first time in many years, China's leading search engine Baidu has been removed from the list. However, China's widely used online consumer and business-oriented online shopping service Taobao remains listed. The full report can be viewed here. It has no legal implications whatsoever, but may be referred to by policy makers regarding future legislation (e.g. SOPA)."
I'm a rightsholder too. For example, I hold the rights to this post. But I wasn't included.
I think it's more correct to say that they drew input exclusively from large media cartel members, not from rightsholders in general.
If they had asked me, for example, I would have listed riaa.org and mpaa.org as rogue sites that sustain global piracy. I don't need evidence. I'm a rightsholder!
Does anyone in the real world care about this list? Unless you're after government contracts I can't really see how business is likely to be affected by your inclusion on it.
And not Google? or Bing?
filetype:torrent $SEARCH_TERM
Another biased & agenda laden publication from The United Corporations of America.
A few I have never tried thank you for the list.
Thanks for naming all the popular sites I never knew about, keep up the good work, I tip my hat to the USTR :D
By the way, if you close these sites, any chance you could do another report so I don't have to go to the fuss of looking for infringing content?
In case you're wondering, the current person filling the post is Ron Kirk, appointed by Obama in 2009. Though it doesn't seem that USTR policy differs much under Republican versus Democratic administrations; sadly this one isn't a partisan issue because both parties are generally on the wrong side.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I love how these two sites made it into the list. They are claimed to be selling "circumvention devices and components used to circumvent technological protection measures on consoles". If they are openly selling these things, I am assuming it is legal in Canada to do so - showing a lovely attitude of "If we call it illegal, it is illegal everywhere in the entire world!" from American "rightholders".
Also, that must have been from the Rightholder Group Dept of Redundancy Right Holder Group.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
Isn't anyone wondering why we get to see lists like that, but no "shame" lists of various internet sellers of brand knockoffs? Ya know, the kind of asshats that keeps spamming /., amongst other sites, with their claims for cheap, cheap prices?
One really has to wonder why this list and not one of the real problem for economy, the commercial infringers. The damage is by some margin higher, and unlike that one, such a shame list, along with action against the operators of such sites, would not only make the economy proponents happy, I bet quite a few internet users would love to see less "cheap outlet" spam littering in their inbox and message boards.
Government really needs a few marketing goons...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
i have gone to pirate bay to download torrents of free/open source software, also i download "steal this film" which was only distributed via bit torrent. there primary use may be to break copyright but it is not its only use
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
For providing me with a neatly organized list of websites I ought to take a look at.
People don't know the difference, plus there is a lot of big money that has their shares in IP. They want to make IP infringement (which the closest "crime" non-commercial IP infringement can be alluded to is Beavis & Butthead sneaking into a theater to watch Twilight.) Commercial IP infringement (counterfeitting) is a different matter and has been well handled by laws we have had for centuries.
But, it isn't really about IP... it is about control and adding more revenue streams.
"The U.S. Government has classified some of the largest websites on the Internet as examples of sites which sustain global piracy."
Disney has pirated a lot from the brothers Grimm, Mark Twain, Hans Christian Anderson, etc. And, they continue to pirate our culture.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Hmmm. Pedantic you are.
I'm convinced that anything which legislates against common human behavior will never have the desired effect. This generalization is, of course, with exceptions and limitations (consider laws against theft and murder and the like) but largely holds true of many things. Laws against prostitution, for example has never stopped it and does little to even inhibit it. A law against smoking wouldn't help. There are countless other examples where civil behavior will simply always be a fact of human society. I hold that file and information sharing is one of these things and what's more, I hold we can't really be human without it. I know it sounds absurd, but what we are talking about is sharing human culture, heritage, art, expression... these are the things that make us human. Trying to package it and make it a "product" is okay within limits, but at some point, it becomes anti-human and I hold we have passed beyond that point quite some time ago.
Yes, plenty of people do not have rights -- like you and me. At least that is how the copyright lobbyists view things.
Palm trees and 8
Why target torrent and P2P sites, and completely disregard sites like this which sell illegal content downloaded straight over HTTP?
Because more people will go and try to find the free ones. If a free site has a hundred users and the paying one has two users, even though the paying one is technically doing "more illegal stuff" these lists will target the highest number of users first.
This isn't about stopping anyone breaking any laws or the like - this is about trying to stop access to content that Big Media is trying to sell.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
Has anyone with the ISTR ever hear of... The Streisand Effect?
They have now.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
the internet killed it
it is unenforceable law
millions of global media hungry technology savvy and most importantly POOR teenagers has made this so, and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do this short of destroying the internet
not that they won't try, and not that they understand or accept this, but maybe someone should scream into these ignorant fucking media dinosaur's ears until they understand that no amount of purchased congresscritter whores, hired tech hacks, or lawyer goons can stop this
game over morons. please don't destroy the most imporatnt media invention since the written word and the printing press in your disability to comprehend fucking reality
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
ahhh, the law of unintended consequences. Seems we should have a government agency for that too!
It's about time. There would be no RIAA or MPAA actions if there were not large site engaged in the support of "piracy".
John Doe isn't a large site, and that was all the RIAA and MPAA were after for years.
Don't make me load Flash then have to click twice to allow it store date on my machine please - I just want to read a document.
Source is here: http://www.ustr.gov/node/6520 (pdf)
Here's some Pastebin goodness: http://pastebin.com/Q5WzwXq0
Only it it's pirated porn, but you can write your congressman, I'm sure he will happily share some of his own favourite sites.
Can anyone who speaks Chinese to a check on how much counterfeit product and pirated copyrighted material is still being offered up on Baidu?
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
The list should include itself - it's linking to pirate sites!