The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), representing five leading trade associations of the U.S. copyright industries, congratulates the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on today’s release of the 2024 Special 301 “Notorious Markets” Report (The Report). The Report identifies 38 online markets and 33 physical markets that are reported to engage in or facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting or copyright piracy, many of which were identified by IIPA members in their respective filings to the U.S. government in 2024.
The 2024 USTR Report includes several previously-identified online markets that are highly problematic, such as Libgen.rs, nsw2u, and Sci-Hub.se which provide access to millions of journal articles and academic papers, the stream-ripping site Savefrom, which circumvents copyright protections of online music and videos, and BitTorrent sites like 1337x.to that provide access to a range of pirated content. This year’s Report also includes newly identified markets such as Fitgirl-repacks, MagisTV, unknowncheats, and Y2mate, all of which were nominated by IIPA or IIPA members. The Report also notes markets such as Vietnam-based Fmovies that shut down due to the notoriety of past listings and ensuing enforcement actions and highlights successful enforcement campaigns including Brazil’s Operation 404.
IIPA Executive Director Kevin M. Rosenbaum commented, “We commend USTR and their interagency partners for their outstanding work on this year’s Special 301 Report of Notorious Markets. The Notorious Markets List is an important trade tool that continues to achieve meaningful results by helping rid marketplaces of blatant infringers. This leads to increased access for legitimate creative content, including books and journals, movies and television programming, video games, and recorded music, ultimately benefitting U.S. workers and consumers both in the United States and around the world. IIPA fully supports USTR’s goal ‘to motivate appropriate action by the private sector and governments to reduce piracy and counterfeiting’ which continue to cause significant financial losses to U.S. rights holders and legitimate businesses. This undermines critical U.S. comparative advantages in innovation and creativity to the detriment of American workers, and pose significant risks to consumer health and safety.” The 2024 USTR Notorious Markets Report can be found here.
