Every year, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) releases a list of \u201cnotorious markets for counterfeiting and piracy,\u201d\u00a0 in which it identifies the largest pipelines of piracy in the world today, from websites where users swap pirated movies and music to suburban flea markets rife with counterfeit goods.<\/p>\n
And every year, the USTR takes submissions from businesses and organizations affected by piracy. Among them, not surprisingly, is the Recording Industry Association of America<\/strong> (RIAA<\/strong>).<\/p>\n This year\u2019s submission from the RIAA singled out messaging apps Discord<\/strong> and Telegram<\/strong> as having become major hubs of music piracy.<\/p>\n By turning a blind eye to organized networks that sell pre-release recordings, the two platforms have become the \u201cprimary mechanisms through which pre-release music is distributed without authorization,\u201d the RIAA said in its submission, which can be read in full here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Telegram and Discord have been largely responsive to takedown notices sent about specific infringements, it is unclear what steps, if any, they take to limit or prevent the ongoing abuse of the platforms for illegal pre-release distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n This year\u2019s submission from the RIAA also adds another piracy threat to copyright and trademarks\u00a0 \u2013 and no, it\u2019s not AI (although the RIAA has previously raised the alarm<\/a> about AI\u2019s potential to rip off artists). Instead, this year\u2019s submission shines a spotlight on\u2026 bootleg vinyl.<\/p>\n Yes, with vinyl records experiencing a renaissance, it was only a matter of time before IP pirates decided to muscle in on the action.<\/p>\n Here are three other trends in music piracy (beyond Discord and Telegram) about which the RIAA is raising the alarm \u2013 including some sobering data about the impact of digital piracy on recorded music revenues.<\/p>\n 1. Bootleg vinyl and CDs<\/h6>\n China and Russia have become major sources of bootleg CDs and vinyl, with pirate manufacturers using e-commerce platforms to sell to consumers all over the world.<\/p>\n \u201cIn some cases, Russian and Chinese sellers will sell directly on retail platforms, shipping the goods to consumers from Russia or China,\u201d the RIAA wrote. \u201cIn other cases, the principals behind the Chinese and Russian counterfeits sell to third-party sellers on platforms that may or may not know they are buying and reselling counterfeits.\u201d<\/p>\n Particularly worrying is that these bootlegs are often \u201chigh quality products made to closely resemble authentic ones,\u201d and consumers may not be able to tell the difference, the RIAA noted.<\/p>\n At times, these CDs and vinyls are \u201cbest of\u201d and \u201cgreatest hits\u201d collections never released by labels, and at other times they may be vinyl or CD versions of albums that were never officially released in those formats, the RIAA said. Unauthorized copies of boxed set collections are becoming increasingly common as well.<\/p>\n This trade wouldn\u2019t be possible for major decentralized online retail platforms such as Amazon<\/a><\/strong>, Marktplaats<\/strong>, and Leboncoin<\/strong>, all of which the RIAA report identifies by name and says they are conduits for \u201cmassive quantities\u201d of counterfeit goods.<\/p>\n \u201cConsumers are paying full price for counterfeit offerings appearing alongside legitimate offerings, resulting in one-for-one displacements of legitimate sales.\u201d<\/p>\n RIAA submission to USTR<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n However, the RIAA singles out eBay<\/strong> and Vinted<\/strong> as the platforms with the greatest number of counterfeit and CD listings.<\/p>\n \u201cVinted has become a destination platform for illicit vinyl sellers,\u201d the RIAA wrote. \u201cOriginally created as [a] clothing resale platform, the volume of infringing vinyl listings has reached epidemic proportions.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite efforts to remove counterfeits from the platform, \u201csellers are allowed to continually relist counterfeit titles, and it appears the platform takes no meaningful action against repeat infringers,\u201d the RIAA said.<\/p>\n \u201cConsumers are paying full price for counterfeit offerings appearing alongside legitimate offerings, resulting in one-for-one displacements of legitimate sales.\u201d<\/p>\n The RIAA<\/a> would like to see Vinted and other platforms start to pre-screen their retailers \u201cto ensure they have legitimate sources of supply.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Stream-ripping and cyberlockers are still a problem<\/h6>\n The rise of legal music streaming services like Spotify<\/a><\/strong> has taken a lot of the wind out of the sails of music piracy, but piracy still remains \u2013 and it\u2019s evolving.<\/p>\n Music pirates have moved beyond basic illicit file-sharing programs (like what Napster<\/a><\/strong> used to be) and are finding all sorts of new ways to deliver unauthorized content.<\/p>\n One such method that the RIAA singled out in its new submission is cyberlockers<\/strong>, also sometimes known as file-hosting services. These are what they sound like: Simple websites where anyone can upload a file and share a link to it. The problem is, some of these cyberlockers have become infamous for turning a blind eye to pirated content hosted on their servers.<\/p>\n The RIAA identifies Krakenfiles<\/strong>, Rapidgator<\/strong>, Chomikuj<\/strong>, Pixeldrain<\/strong>, and Pillowcase<\/strong> as being among these notorious file-hosters, but there are many other such sites out there, making enforcement of copyright on these services a game of whack-a-mole.<\/p>\n Unlike legitimate cloud storage services, these cyberlockers \u201care all about maximizing and monetizing traffic to their service. Nothing draws traffic like popular copyrighted content that can be downloaded for free. Thus, their business model is, at its heart, the distribution of unlicensed content,\u201d the RIAA wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cTo a limited extent, rights holders can attempt to tackle these infringements by sending takedown notices to the site operators. However, this often entails monitoring thousands of third-party link resources \u2013 e.g., blogs, forum sites, and search engines \u2013 to locate the information that is needed to notify the locker of infringements occurring on their own services.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cStream ripping continues to be the most prevalent form of online music piracy.\u201d<\/p>\n RIAA submission to USTR<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n These services are in a \u201cmuch better position\u201d to identify infringing content themselves, the RIAA noted, \u201cif they really had an interest in conducting their business legally.\u201d<\/p>\n Stream-ripping<\/strong> is another tool that enables music piracy. This typically involves a website where a user can type in the URL of a streamed audio or video file (most commonly a YouTube<\/a><\/strong> file) and then download the audio or video to their device.<\/p>\n The music industry has an initiative in place to report stream-ripping sites to search engines, so they can be demoted in search results. \u201cHowever, ripper site operators have responded to this effort by creating new domain names to operate through that allows them to reappear at the top of search results,\u201d the RIAA said.<\/p>\n The submission identified some common \u201cbrands\u201d of stream-ripping services, some of which rotate through different domain names, among them Y2mate<\/strong>, Savefrom<\/strong>, SSyoutube<\/strong>, Tubidy<\/strong>, Notube<\/strong> and Snaptube<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cStream ripping continues to be the most prevalent form of online music piracy,\u201d the RIAA noted.<\/p>\n 3. The recorded music business is still smaller than it was before digital piracy<\/h6>\n As is often the case with its submissions to the USTR, the RIAA attempts to paint a picture of the damage being done to the music industry through piracy. This year\u2019s report pulls out some alarming numbers.<\/p>\n \u201cIn inflation-adjusted dollars, the 2024 US sound recording revenues were still far below the peak US sound recording revenues that were reached in 1999,\u201d the submission stated.<\/p>\n Adjusted to today\u2019s dollars, US recorded music revenues were over $26 billion<\/strong> in 1999, compared to $17.7 billion<\/strong> in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cThis period of time coincides with the rise of broadband and digital piracy generally, as well as the later rise of the sale and importation of foreign-made, counterfeit physical music products through e-commerce platforms and the rise of stream ripping,\u201d the RIAA noted.<\/p>\n\n
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