While counterfeit phannaceuticals and medical devices pose the most obvious health and safety hazards to consumers, many industries are affected by counterfeit goods that can put consumers at risk. Substandard products in the automotive, chemical, wine and spirits, tobacco, food, and consumer goods/personal care product sectors could have considerable adverse effects on consumer health and safety. This issue is of particular concern in China and Russia, but also affects consumers in the United States. Weaknesses in the distribution and supply chains must be addressed in order to prevent injury to consumers who believe that they are purchasing or using a legitimate product.
Notorious Markets
Global piracy and counterfeiting continue to thrive, due in part to large marketplaces that deal in infringing goods. This year's Special 301 Report notes the following virtual and physical markets as examples of marketplaces that have been the subject of enforcement action, or may merit further investigation for possible IPR infringements, or both. The list represents a selective summary of information reviewed during the Special 301 process; it is not a finding of violations of law. The United States encourages the responsible authorities to step up efforts to combat piracy and counterfeiting in these and similar markets.
Allofmp3 (Russia). Industry reports that allofmp3 was formerly the world's largest server-based pirate music website. Although the site's commercial operations appear to have been disabled in 2007 and a criminal prosecution is pending, other Russian-based websites are reportedly continuing operations with similar infringing content.
Baidu (China). Industry has identified Baidu as the largest China-based "MP3 search engine" offering deep links to copyright-protected music files for unauthorized downloads or streaming. Baidu is the target of ongoing infringement actions.
Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) websites (China). A large number of these Chinese websites, such as Alibaba and Taobao, have been cited by industry as offering infringing products to consumers and businesses. The Internet traders who use these online markets to offer counterfeit goods are difficult to investigate, and contribute to the growth of global counterfeiting.
PirateBay (Sweden). Industry reports that PirateBay is one of the world's largest BitTorrent tracker sites and a major global conduit for the unauthorized exchange of copyright-protected film and music files. PirateBay was raided by Swedish police in 2006, and the government initiated the prosecution of four Swedes associated with the site in January 2008, but the site has continued to operate, reportedly relying on servers located outside of Sweden.
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