Digital pirates in China are getting more sophisticated and are blocking their services domestically to avoid local law enforcement, and U.S. copyright holders would like to speak to the manager.
The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), which represents various U.S. entertainment industries from Hollywood to gaming, is calling on China to do more to stop these operations, which have been dubbed ‘export-only’ piracy.
The IIPA called out the practice and named notable offenders in a submission last week to the U.S. Trade Representative. The submission was part of the Trade Representative’s annual review of China’s compliance with World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations, TorrentFreak reports.
“While significant piracy in China’s domestic market remains an enduring challenge, the exporting of pirated content, piracy services, and piracy devices (PDs) from China to foreign markets is a growing and equally troubling global trend,” the submission reads.
The report highlights several of the worst offenders, including the internet TV platform and privacy device exporter FlujoTV (formerly MagisTV), which targets Latin America; the app LokLok, serving Southeast Asia; and the website GIMY, popular in Taiwan.
The IIPA underscored how pirates are shifting tactics and searching for new loopholes to exploit. Another example provided by the group was the reskinning of video games.
“Instead of traditional methods that involve technical cracking of game software for complete duplication and distribution, game piracy in China is increasingly characterized by reskinning the original games with non-substantial revisions,” the report says. It added that the changes could be as simple as making slight adjustments to the games’ source code.
Additionally, the IIPA’s comments paint a picture of China’s copyright enforcement as slow, inconsistent, and bureaucratic. For example, even after initial sanctions against violators, rights holders often have to file new complaints for repeat offenses. E-commerce platforms usually only have to delist specific items, rather than shutting down entire shops. And geo-blocked services can operate completely under the radar.
“This allows China-based operations to evade enforcement action by simply geo-blocking their services from access within China or serving a different set of content to users accessing these services from within China,” the IIPA wrote.
The group is now calling for specific reforms to address the issue, including more resources and better coordination for the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC), simpler complaint procedures, and clearer rules for user-uploaded content platforms.
They also want China to enforce its laws against all piracy operations run from the country, even if the services aren’t accessible locally, and to improve cross-border cooperation so geo-blocked piracy doesn’t slip through the cracks.