RIAA's list of 'notorious markets' includes Telegram

By Emmanuel Legrand

At the request of the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), US music labels' trade body the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has submitted its most recent list of "notorious markets," identifying internet and physical markets based outside the United States that should be included in the forthcoming Notorious Markets List.

  "The online and physical markets identified in our comments are harming American creators, businesses, and the American economy," wrote RIAA’s SVP of International Policy GeorgeYork. He added, "While the growth in music streaming is promising, the music industry recovery continues to be threatened by online marketplaces that infringe our members’ music, as well as by sales of counterfeit products over ecommerce platforms, outdated laws and their misapplication and abuse, and lack of proper enforcement mechanisms."

  In its submission, the RIAA identified "some of the major online infringing actors that threaten our industry’s recovery and jeopardise the US competitive advantage in digital trade." For the RIAA, identifying and enforcing the rights of music rights owners against "rogue actors" is a "challenge."

Distortions in the marketplace

  York added that the infringing activity from these sites "creates distortions in the marketplace that undermine the music industry prosperity, which in turn negatively impacts the US trade surplus."

  Key infringers, according to the RIAA's list, are stream-ripping services that convert into files music licensed to audio and video streaming service. "The distribution of permanent downloads of files from streaming services deprives the record companies and artists of streaming revenue by eliminating the need for users to return to YouTube and other licensed services every time they listen to the music," wrote the RIAA, which monitors over 200 sites, such as Mp3juicesand Ytmp3, both registered in Panama, Russian-operated Flvto.bizand 2Conv, mp3-youtubefrom France or Y2matefrom Vietnam.

  The RIAA also identified sites that directly or indirectly offers unauthorised on-demand streaming and/or downloading of music, such as Newalbumreleasesfrom the Czech Republic, Ukraine-based Rnbxclusive, or Xclusivejams, registered in the Seychelles. BitTorrent indexing sites are next on RIAA's list of infringers. including The PirateBay, 1337x, Rarbg, Torrentz2, among others, followed by cyberlockers, like Zippyshareor Rapidgator.  

  The submission also lists unlicensed pay-for-download websites based in Russia and the Ukraine that engage in the digital sale of singles and albums.

  A new addition to the list is piracy within Mobile Apps, with apps such as Telegram, described as an instant messaging service which allows users to communicate via text and voice message, which also offers "many user-created channels which are dedicated to the unauthorised distribution of copyrighted recordings."

Telegram taking no action

  According to the RIAA, Telegram itself hosts many of the copyrighted recordings made available through these channels and has sent DMCA notices to the service containing over 18,000 instances of copyrighted recordings offered without authorisation through these channels. However, the RIAA noted that these notices seem to have no effect.

  Wrote the RIAA: "Telegram claims that it forwards our notices to the channel operators who are responsible for removing the infringements listed in our notices. We have found, however, that most channel operators appear to take no action in response to our notices, with nearly all of infringements listed in our notices remaining available."

  TorrentFreak noted that by putting Telegram on the USTR’s agenda "the RIAA hopes to, directly or indirectly, motivate the messaging app to do more to prevent piracy."