MPAA Survey Ranks ‘Notorious’ Piracy Markets

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The MPAA has compiled a list of the world's "most notorious" markets for the illegal distribution of film and TV content, with Ukraine, Canada, China and Russia home to some of the worst-offending pirate websites as well as widespread DVD counterfeiting.

The MPAA provided the report in response to a U.S. Trade Representative request for information on the worst piracy markets outside of the U.S.

“The American motion picture and television industry is a major U.S. employer that supports approximately 2 million jobs and over $104 billion in total wages in all 50 states," said MPAA chairman and CEO, Senator Chris Dodd, in announcing the report. "The rogue overseas marketplaces highlighted in the filing undermine the people who work hard to create the movies and TV shows audiences love, and jeopardize the billions of dollars they contribute to the U.S. economy. The MPAA commends the USTR’s commitment to protect and enforce intellectual property rights abroad and, in so doing, protect U.S. jobs.”

In its research on the most notorious online piracy markets, the MPAA pointed to P2P websites registered in the Ukraine (Extratorrent), Canada (Kickass), China (QVOD), Russia (Rutracker) and Sweden (Pirate Bay). The most popular "cyberlockers" meanwhile (such as Megaupload, allowing users to store and share large files), are registered in the Netherlands, Germany, the U.K. and Russia. In terms of websites that link to pirated content, the worst offenders were traced to Argentina, Estonia, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Romania, Spain, Latvia, Sweden and China.

DVD piracy remains a problem in a host of territories; the MPAA lists Ukraine, Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, Ireland, Brazil, Russia, Thailand, Mexico and India as being home to some of the biggest counterfeit DVD markets.