The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has released its 2025 report on notorious markets, which identifies 37 online markets (down from 38 last year) and 32 physical markets (down from 33) around the world that reportedly engage in, facilitate, turn a blind eye to, or benefit from substantial copyright piracy or trademark counterfeiting.
USTR notes that this list does not constitute an exhaustive list of all markets reported to deal in or facilitate commercial-scale copyright piracy or trademark counterfeiting, nor does it reflect findings of legal violations or the U.S. government’s analysis of the general IPR protection and enforcement climate in the countries concerned.
This year’s report includes a section examining piracy of live sports broadcasts and the challenges of protecting copyright in the digital age. This section emphasizes that effective copyright protection and robust enforcement mechanisms in this space are essential to preserve the economic value and competitive integrity of sports broadcasts.
The report continues to highlight right holders’ concerns with the prevalence of cyberlocker sites that facilitate the storage and distribution of pirated content. Cyberlockers act as the hosting and content storage sites for the world’s most popular piracy streaming and linking websites. Right holders emphasize that cyberlocker sites typically depend on advertising for revenue and are thus incentivized to drive more traffic to their sites by offering popular copyright-protected content for free. Many sites also offer a tiered revenue sharing system to reward the uploaders of their most popular content, further incentivizing content contributors to continue uploading protected works, including pre-release material.
Also of particular concern are “bulletproof” Internet service providers that facilitate piracy, the proliferation of counterfeit sales facilitated by the confluence of e-commerce platforms and social media sites, and fraudulent advertisements and links to fake websites misleading users into unknowingly purchasing counterfeit products through both e-commerce and social commerce platforms. On the other hand, the report also highlights “notable efforts” over the past year in addressing the widespread availability of counterfeit and pirated goods in some online and physical markets.
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