China and Russia harbouring cyber copyright criminals

Improvements but still topping US Gov list

28 April 2008 13:10 GMT / By Katie Scott

The US has pointed the finger at China and Russia and told them to sort out their online pirating problems.

The blacklist of intellectual property abusers has now been published by the US Trade Office; and yet again China and Russia are at the top.

The report damns China as still having "high levels of copyright piracy", despite efforts by government officials who claim they arrested 4322 people for piracy in 2007.

Russia was told off for "large-scale production and distribution of IP-infringing optical media".

And ISPs in both countries were named and shamed.

Both AllOfMP3 (based in Russia) and Baidu (based in China) were cited "as creating flourishing virtual markets for copyright infringement", according to online reports.

And the notorious Pirate Bay, which is currently fighting a legal battle in Sweden and has been banned in Denmark, also got a mention.

Argentina, Chile, India, Israel, Pakistan, Thailand, and Venezuela also made the list.