Hollywood and the recording industry's copyright lobby groups, the MPAA and RIAA, have submitted their annual list of piracy sites to the Office of the US Trade Representative, in order to help the USTR prepare their annual "Notorious Markets" list.
The lists from the two groups include the usual suspects, including The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents, as well as the popular Popcorn Time app. File hosting cyberlocker sites Rapidgator, Uploaded.net and Putlocker are also part of the list, as is Russian social networking site VK.
The MPAA also used the letter to the USTR to target "hosting providers, advertising networks, payment processors, and search engines" who the trade group says is supporting the piracy trade. The MPAA wants these "stakeholders" to be more active in stopping piracy on Hollywood's behalf.
The RIAA took an even stronger line against an unexpected target - digital rights advocates including the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The RIAA accuses the EFF and other digital rights groups of being "apologists" for notorious actors like The Pirate Bay.
"Many of those who profit from the status quo like to disguise their self-interest in rhetoric about free expression. It is long past time to end this dangerous charade. Defending the piracy of creative works in the name of freedom of expression is tantamount to foxes campaigning for open-range chickens," the RIAA's Neil Turkewitz writes.
The RIAA also expanded upon and clarified the MPAA's list of piracy "enablers" to include "domain registrars, privacy/proxy service providers, to advertisers and ad networks, search engines, content delivery networks and hosting services".
