2017 Notorious Markets List 1.11.18
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published the 2017 List of Notorious Markets. This was the first review under the Trump Administration. The List identifies physical and online marketplaces believed to facilitate the sale of pirated goods.
Two of the most interesting selections were the PirateBay and Alibaba’s Taobao.
Pirate Bay is of symbolic importance as one of the longest-running and most vocal torrent sites of illegal downloads of movies, television, music, and other copyrighted content.
Alibaba blamed politics for Taobao’s listing and cited its impressive anti-counterfeiting record, which was cited in the USTR’s report. The USTR acknowledged that Alibaba has taken steps to improve the situation, but it noted that “important unresolved concerns remained.” Taobao was reinstated on the list under the Obaba administration a year ago.