14 DAY TRIAL // The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has spent a few months investigating and compiling a report on the methods and tactics used by intellectual property rights (IPR) offenders.
According to the agency, copyright offenders often use domain squatting, the TOR network, BitTorrent, escrow systems, affiliate programs, and Bitcoin to carry out their operations.
Besides direct monetary gain from selling counterfeit material, IPR infringers also gain additional profits from selling ad spots on their popular yet illegal websites.
The report and its findings are to be used in the creation of future IP protection laws or boosting current laws with new amendments. EUIPO lists the following as normal tactics and methods used to commit IPR theft or abuse.
Open Internet Marketing Misusing IPR in Domain Name or Digital Identifier
This category includes cybersquatting, domain name parking, affiliate marketing making unauthorized trademark use in the domain name, marketing of IPR-infringing products while misusing the related trademark in the domain name, and marketing of non-genuine products on website making use of an unrelated trademark in the domain name.
Open Internet Marketing Without Misusing IPR in Domain Name or Digital Identifier
This category includes tactics such as online pharmacy marketing of prescription medication, website marketing for applied arts replicas, marketing goods or digital content on third-party online wholesale marketplace (B2B), sale of non-genuine goods through social media networks, and virtual product marketing in a virtual world (such as gaming platforms).
Darknet Hidden Services
This category of methods revolves around the use of the Tor network and includes online shops and marketplaces hidden on the Dark Web, where sellers can literally sell anything they want without worrying about authorities.
Phishing, Malware Dissemination and Fraud
This category of IPR infringement methods includes spoofing a website by making unauthorized use of a trademark, phishing emails making unauthorized use of a trademark, Android smartphone application making unauthorized use of a trademark (providing access to pornographic content and disseminating malware), malware dissemination from website making unauthorized use of a trademark, and fraudulent use of the trademark of a trademark registration office.
Digital Content Sharing on Open Internet
Probably the category that's giving copyright holders the most grief. The methods of committing IPR infringement described in this category include creating websites with links to digital content, websites contributing to video streaming, torrent websites, file sharing cyberlockers, and television streaming portals.
The 78-page report is nothing new to tech-savvy users, but if you know the EU, this is only the first bureaucratic step in cracking down on these services through harsher laws. The EU is already very close to forcing Bitcoin traders to deanonymize Bitcoin transactions.