![\"i2coalition\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/i2coalition.png\")
Earlier this month, several prominent copyright holder groups sent their annual \u201cnotorious markets\u201d recommendations to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).<\/p>\nEarlier this month, several prominent copyright holder groups sent their annual \u201cnotorious markets\u201d recommendations to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).<\/p>\n
The U.S. Government uses these documents as input for its yearly review of notorious piracy markets, which aims to provide an overview of threats to various copyright industries.<\/p>\n
The recommendations, including those from the RIAA<\/a>, MPA<\/a>, and ESA, traditionally focus on well-known piracy sites such as The Pirate Bay and Fmovies. Increasingly, however, third-party technology providers are also being added to the mix.<\/p>\n For example, domain registrars and hosting services are regularly called out, and the same is true for advertising and payment companies. Cloudflare has been frequently mentioned as well, although it\u2019s not officially listed since the overview focuses on foreign entities.<\/p>\n While some of these intermediaries help to facilitate piracy, not everyone agrees that they are notorious piracy markets. Mentioning them in the same breath as criminal enterprises can indeed cause some confusion. <\/p>\n The above summarizes the viewpoint of the Internet Infrastructure Coalition, i2Coalition<\/a> for short. The industry group represents key Internet companies and counts Amazon, Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Google, OVH, Verisign, and many VPN services among its members.<\/p>\n The i2Coalition\u2019s submission to the USTR notes that its members value copyright protection efforts but cautions against making the \u201cnotorious markets\u201d definition too broad. In any case, the USTR should ensure that neutral intermediaries are not included.<\/p>\n Internet infrastructure companies are not marketplaces, they don\u2019t manage content directly, and can\u2019t easily remove infringing content, the coalition says. The USTR should keep this in mind and reflect this distinction in its final report.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy Internet intermediaries are not notorious markets is not just a semantic difference. It is crucial to understand the underlying technologies and limitations when discussing the obligations of providers,\u201d i2Coalition writes. <\/p>\n \u201cFor instance, DNS and cybersecurity service providers, like some i2Coalition companies, route requests through a globally distributed network. Their technology creates the pathway between a series of numbers and signals and the \u2018web\u2019. <\/p>\n \u201cBy their nature, these businesses have limited access to the content information they transmit; they lack the capacity to access it or make qualitative analyses or judgments about it,\u201d the coalition adds.<\/p>\n While the USTR\u2019s most recent reports haven\u2019t listed these neutral Internet infrastructure intermediaries as notorious markets, they regularly feature in copyright holder submissions. This undermines the effectiveness of the annual reviews, the coalition warns. <\/p>\n The i2Coalition would like the USTR to work on a narrower definition of the term \u201cnotorious market\u201d. An even better solution would see Congress getting involved to rewrite the definition to make sure that neutral Internet infrastructure companies can carry on their business without piracy accusations.<\/p>\n With more clarity, i2Coalition hopes that neutral intermediaries will no longer be added to the \u201cnotorious markets\u201d category. <\/p>\n \u201cThis lack of clarity in the past few years has tended to result in numerous parties filing comments with USTR as part of this process alleging infringement and proffering submissions to the notorious markets list either erroneously or in a manner intentionally meant to mischaracterize those who are responsible for the alleged violations.\u201d<\/p>\n The letter doesn\u2019t mention specific companies or services the coalition believes were mistakenly called out. However, the coalition makes it clear that it is essential to clear up what a \u2018notorious market\u2019 actually is in today\u2019s digital economy. <\/p>\n \u2014<\/em><\/p>\n A copy of the letter, signed by the Internet Infrastructure Coalition\u2019s Executive Director Christian Dawson, is available here (pdf)<\/a><\/p>\n From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\nNotorious Intermediaries?<\/h2>\n
i2Coalition Calls For Clarity<\/h2>\n
Congress Could Step In<\/h2>\n