ONLINE COUNTERFEITING AND PIRACY

Whether it’s from a mobile phone, tablet or smart TV, online digital consumption is increasing and becoming the default choice for accessing film, TV, music, books, software and games. However, with this increase and demand comes piracy and as broadband speeds become faster and more affordable, businesses from across the creative industries are seeing more content being pirated and illegally accessed online.

Risks of pirate websites: Often pirate sites will feature advertising to help give the site a look of legitimacy but most important to the criminals behind them it generates lucrative revenue. Pirate sites are online havens for theft, enabling criminals to profit from content or intellectual property they had nothing to do with creating. The potential harm from these rogue sites is profound. They have been found to expose visitors to child- inappropriate content, viruses, malware, fraud and scams.

Types of online piracy: There are many different types of websites that provide unlawful access to copyrighted content such as films, music, TV games and software.

1. Streaming sites: Illegal streaming allows one to view unauthorized copyrighted content on demand without downloading the illegal file. Websites may stream directly or provide links to content hosted on other websites. Hosting unauthorized content and providing links to unauthorized content is illegal. These sites are often user-friendly, with content divided into categories such as genre, year or language.
2. Cyberlockers: Cyberlockers are file-storage and file-sharing services for various media file types such as photos, videos and sound file. They offer fast, convenient and anonymous distribution of content, which can be downloaded or streamed and quite often these sites are generating significant income through subscription services. Cyberlockers are unsearchable so infringing content is shared on blogs, forums and social media.
3. P2P: P2P or peer-to-peer sharing sites allows the sharing of digital files among “peers”. When using a peer-to-peer network one is allowing files stored on their computer to be available for copying by others. One can then transfer exact copies of these files from one computer to another. Although it is legal to share large amounts of data or files, users often exchange copyrighted material illegally. While people may believe their files are only available to a few friends, these files can be accessed by millions all over the world who are part of the same P2P network. The default setting for most P2P networks ensures that individuals downloading files are simultaneously uploading files, which means if one downloads movies one is also distributing illegal content to others. By allowing strangers to access one’s computer, private files could also become accessible and put one at risk.
4. Linking sites: Linking websites collate thousands of links to pirated content often stored on external cyberlockers. These sites are prolific in copyright infringement as cyberlockers are not searchable.
5. Torrent sites: Film release groups upload and share content on private torrent sites that rely on donations from members. The material eventually makes its way on public torrent sites, where it can be downloaded by anyone.

Argentina

1. CUEVANA
2. POPCORN TIME (Popcorn Time apps are reportedly blocked in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom)

Belarus

1. DEAL.BY (Business-to-consumer market place in Belarus)

Bosnia & Herzegovina

1. RARBG ( A popular BitTorrent website hosted in Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Brazil and Latin America

1. MERCADO LIBRE (One of the most popular business-to-consumers e-commerce platforms in Brazil and in Latin America, selling a high volume of allegedly counterfeit goods).

British Virgin Islands

1. 4SHARED.COM (Reportedly registered in the British Virgin Islands and  owner is probably located in the United States)

Bulgaria

1. BLUEANGELHOST
2. RARBG

China

1. 1688.COM (Platform operated by Alibaba)
2. ALIEXPRESS.COM (Platform operated by Alibaba)  
3. BAIDU WANGPAN
4. B-OK.ORG (Relevant website in the Library Genesis Project  reportedly continues to operate as z-lib.org and mirror sites such as 1lib.eu, b-ok.cc, booksc.org, book4you.org, bok.org, bookos-z1.org and booksc.xyz.
5. DHGATE (Largest business-to-business e-commerce platform in China, allegedly selling high volume of counterfeit goods
6. PINDUODUO
7. TAOBAO (Platform operated by Alibaba)
8. TMALL.COM (Platform operated by Alibaba)
9. WECHAT (WEIXIN) E-COMMERCE ECOSYSTEM (China)
10. XXJCY.COM and CHINA-TELECOMMUNICATIONS.COM (Popular business-to-business marketplaces in China, selling a high volume of allegedly counterfeit goods

Czech Republic

1. NEWALBUMRELEASES

Egypt

1. EGY.BEST (Egypt)

Finland

1. FLOKINET (Finland, Iceland, Romania)
2. FLVTO

France

1. 1FICHIER.COM
2. MPGH

Germany

1. UPLOADED.NET (ul.to, uploaded.to) (Hosted in Germany and allegedly operated from Switzerland).

India

1. INDIAMART
2. SNAPDEAL (One of the most popular business-to-consumers online e-commerce platforms in India, allegedly selling a high volume of counterfeit goods)

Indonesia

1. BUKALAPAK (One of the most popular, mostly business-to consumers, online e-commerce platforms in Indonesia, allegedly selling a high volume of counterfeit goods)
2. TOKOPEDIA (One of the most popular business-to-consumers and business-to-business online e-commerce platforms in Indonesia, selling a high volume of allegedly counterfeit goods)

Iraq

1. SHABAKATY (Iraq)
2. CHALOOS (Iraq)

Israel

1. REVENUEHITS (Israel)

Jordan

1. SPIDER

Kazakhstan

1. SATU.KZ (Business-to-consumers market place in Kazakhstan selling a high volume of counterfeit goods)

Netherlands

1. MP3JUICES (Netherlands and Russia).
2. UPLOADED (Reportedly hosted in the Netherlands and operated from Switzerland)

North Africa (Algeria and Morocco)

1. KING365TV.COM (Reportedly operates from Algeria).
2. POPCORN TIME (A Piracy App with high global audience numbers and available in various forms and languages. The website’s operator is reportedly located in North Africa).
3. VOLKAIPTV.COM (Reportedly operates from Algeria or Morocco).

Panama

1. PRIVATE LAYER (Panama and hosting operations in Switzerland)

Poland

1. CHOMIKUJ

Romania

1. OPENLOAD.CO (shut down in 2019)

Russia

1. BOOKFI.NET (Mirror sites booksee.org, bookre.org, or bookzz.org) (Another important website of the Library Genesis Project. It is reportedly operated from Russia or Ukraine).
2. Flvto and 2conv - Flvto.biz and 2conv.com reportedly operated by the same individual in Russia
3. LIBRARY GENESIS - LIBGEN.IS and mirror sites. LIBGEN.IS is one of the most popular websites in the Library Genesis Group. It is hosted in both Russia and the Netherlands and operated from Russia. It has a number of mirror sites making the same content available, such as libgen.lc, libgen.io, libgen.pw and gen.lib.rus.ec.
4. REZKA. AG (Popular Russian-language streaming website hosted in Russia).
5. RUTRACKER .ORG  (A BitTorrent website hosted in Russia by a Seychelles company. The site links to torrent files for unlicensed digital media and is reportedly subject to blocking orders in Australia, Denmark, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Portugal, Russia, and Singapore)
6. SCI-HUB (Sci-hub (Sci-hub.tw; sci-hub.cc; sci-hub.ac; sci-hub.bz; sci-hub.ren; sci-hub-im; scihub.shop)allegedly hosted in Russia)
7. SEASONVAR.RU (Russian-language streaming website, allegedly hosted in Russia and the residence of the operator is assumed to be outside the EU)
8. TIU.RU (Large business-to-consumers marketplace allegedly selling a high volume of counterfeit goods)
9. VK.COM (V KONTAKTE) (Social network based in Russia but available in many languages, including English. It is the leading social network in Russia and Russian speaking territories)

Singapore

1. SHOPEE (Shopee one of the biggest business-to-consumers online e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia, with its headquarters in Singapore)

Sweden

1. FMOVIES 26.35 million visitors Blocked in Australia, Denmark, India, Malaysia, and Singapore
2. THEPIRATEBAY 62.21 million visitors Allegedly remains one of the largest BitTorrent websites globally.   Authorities in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom have issued orders blocking access to this site

Switzerland

1. RAPIDGATOR (Rapidgator - rapidgator.net (Hosted in Switzerland but allegedly operated from Russia)
2. SWATCHERIES-SWATCHERIES.TO (Hosted in Switzerland and uses services to mask its IP location).
3. UPTOBOX.COM (Allegedly located in Switzerland, with links to the United Arab Emirates)

Turkey

1. FULLHDFILMMIZLESENE – FULLHDFILMMIZLESENE.COM or ORG ( Turkish-language website  hosted in Turkey and using domain privacy and proxy services to hide the identity and residence of the operator)

Ukraine

1. BIGL.UA (Large business-to-consumers marketplace in Ukraine, allegedly selling a high volume of counterfeit goods
2. PROM.UA (Large business-to-consumers marketplace in Ukraine, allegedly selling a high volume of counterfeit goods)

United Kingdom

1. KINOGO.CLUB 36.78 million visitors
2. TELEGRAM (Cloud-based mobile and desktop application. It reportedly has its legal domicile in the United Kingdom and its operational centre in the United Arab Emirates.

United States

1. AMAZON.COM
2. EBAY.COM
3. RLSBB-RLSBB.RU (Uses services to mask its IP location. It is allegedly hosted in the United States)

Vietnam

1. PHIMMOI

Other Websites

1. 1337x.tw.  
2. 2embed
3. BESTBUYIPTV
4. DYTT8
5. FMOVIES (Blocked in Australia, Denmark, India, Malaysia, and Singapore)
6. ISTAR
7. PELISPLUS)
8. WI.TO and DDL.TO (Established outside the EU)
9. RNBXCLUSIVE
10. DBREE.ORG  
11. Y2MATE YOUTUBECONVERTER
12. SAVEFROM.NET (Operated outside the EU)
13. THEPIRATEBAY.ORG (Allegedly remains one of the largest BitTorrent websites globally. The hosting location of the website is kept hidden.
14. MUSIC BAZAAR.COM and MUSIC-BAZAAR.MOBI

​Listed Countries

1. Argentina
2. ​Belarus
3. ​Bosnia & Herzegovina
4. Brazil and Latin America
5. ​British Virgin Islands
6. ​Bulgaria
7. China
8. ​Czech Republic
9. ​Egypt
10. ​Finland
11. ​France
12. ​Germany
13. India
14. ​Indonesia
15. ​Iraq
16. ​Israel
17. ​Jordan
18. ​Kazakhstan
19. ​Netherlands
20. North Africa (Algeria and Morocco)
21. ​Panama
22. Poland
23. ​Romania
24. Russia
25. ​Singapore
26. ​Sweden
27. ​Switzerland
28. ​Turkey
29. ​Ukraine
30. ​United Kingdom
31. United States
32. Vietnam