Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List: Following the example of the United States, the European Unionpublished its first "Counterfeiting and Piracy Watch List."
Η movement of the European Commission is targeting a wide range of alleged "piracy" sites in the BitTorrent, cyberlocker, and stream-ripping space, encouraging Authorities and ISPs to help prevent their activities.
"The list will identify and describe the most problematic pages to discourage operators and their owners. At the same time, it will encourage the competent local authorities and governments to take the necessary measures to reduce the availability of goods subject to copyright law, "the EU said in January.
Almost 11 months later, the EU published the first "Counterfeiting and Piracy Tracking List".
The list lists websites, and services that are supposed to participate, facilitate or benefit from counterfeiting and piracy, in order to put pressure on the Authorities and the owners of the websites-services.
Watch List Cyberlockers
The addition of Rapidgator to the new EU report was perhaps a given. It is supposed to have been hosted in Switzerland but operates from Russia. The platform is accused of hosting content that violates the law, while encouraging uploaders with monetary rewards.
“The total number of visits to rapidgrator.net between April 2017 and March 2018 was approximately 635,7 millions users. 34% of visits came from the EU, and 66% from other countries,” the report states.
The Upload.net, is also on the list. It is reported to operate from Switzerland (a country that is in Europe geographically but remains outside the EU). Also, the page reportedly incentivizes uploaders to upload content by paying cash.
"The total number of Upload.net visits between April 2017 and March 2018 was about 856 million. 39% of the visits came from the EU, and 61% from third countries. "
Openload is also on the list. It is a site that hosts files from Hulu or HBO Go. He is accused of hosting illegal files and why he pays rewards to uploaders.
Of course 4shared is also mentioned:
"The total number of 4shared.com visits between April 2017 and March 2018 was
about 721 million. "10% of the visits came from the EU, and 90% from third countries."
In the same section, the Sci-Hub. The report claims that the site is the "Pirate Bay of Science" and obtains its content using "classified user credentials obtained through phishing scams", which the site administrator denies.
Watch List Stream-ripping
But the number one threat is Stream ripping at the EU report. H1converter.com is said to be hosted in the US and operated from Vietnam, generating about 2 million hits a year.
Downvids.net is hosted in France and the owner is believed to be outside the EU. The site is said to have around 107 million hits a year, making it "one of the most popular streaming services in the world".
Watch List Links and referral sites
As defined in the EU report, these sites "collect, classify, organize and index links with pirated multimedia content stored on hosting sites".
Fullhdfilmizlesene.org for example hosted in Turkey is said to be one of the most popular sites of its kind with around 451 million hits annually. Seasonvar.ru is hosted in Russia and is also on the list, with 1,1 billion visits per year. Dwatchseries.to, 1channel.ch and the RnbXclusive.review platform complete the list.
Watch List Torrent sites
Unsurprisingly, Pirate Bay is the first threat with an estimated 3,1 billion hits between April 2017 and March 2018.
Immediately after there is the popular torrent platform RARBG. Hosted in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is reported that it may delete content after a complaint, but reappears very soon.
"The total number of Rarbg.to visits between April 2017 and March 2018 was about 1,371 billion users. 31% of the visits came from the EU, and 69% from third countries. "
The list also includes RuTracker, 1337x.to, and the Torrentz2 search engine.
Watch List Hosting Providers
The EU report calls on hosting and internet service providers who "do not exercise due diligence when opening accounts on such websites, blocking illegal websites and cooperating with copyright holders to remove or block pirated content."
Η Cloudflare based in the US is accused of providing services to 40% of pirate websites worldwide.
Read the “Counterfeiting and Piracy Watch List from here (pdf).
