ENFORCEMENT
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eop_ipec_jointstrategicplan_hi-res
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Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement<br />
FIG. 2: IPR-Infringing Websites: Tactics Used to Build Resilience Against Enforcement Activity.<br />
Build Redundancy<br />
Register hundreds or thousands of<br />
domain names to support “mirror<br />
sites” to drag rights holders or law<br />
enforcement into “whack-a-mole”<br />
pursuit<br />
Establish Diverse<br />
Geographical Footprint<br />
Register domain names in<br />
numerous jurisdictions to facilitate<br />
domain-name hopping<br />
Ascertain Safe Havens<br />
Register domain names in<br />
jurisdictions with weak IPR<br />
protections or enforcement, while<br />
utilizing service providers that will<br />
not assess the veracity of<br />
submitted complaints of<br />
unlawful actitivity<br />
For example, a study commissioned by the European<br />
Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), through the<br />
European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual<br />
Property Rights, identified various infringement-based<br />
business models employed to intentionally benefit from<br />
and exploit copyrighted digital content on the Internet,<br />
including by way of linking, torrent, streaming, and<br />
cyberlocker sites. 25 The illicit online business models<br />
appear to be structured to achieve three primary<br />
objectives: (i) to shield and conceal identities; (ii) to<br />
establish operational redundancies so as to ensure<br />
resiliency in the face of enforcement actions; and (iii) to<br />
maximize dissemination of infringing third-party content.<br />
Examples of some of the tactics employed to realize these<br />
objectives are summarized below.<br />
Entities engaged in the unlawful exploitation<br />
of copyrighted content are reported to conceal or<br />
otherwise mask identifying information by providing<br />
false or inaccurate registration information when<br />
registering a domain name. 26 An operator of a website<br />
engaged in illicit activity may also employ one or<br />
more evasive registration tactics (FIG. 2,3) such as<br />
the registration of hundreds of names across various<br />
jurisdictions, in order to increase resilience against any<br />
enforcement actions directed at the illicit enterprise. 27<br />
Once domain names have been secured, reporting<br />
suggests that the entity seeking to exploit unlicensed<br />
third-party content for commercial profit often employs<br />
various additional hosting and operational schemes<br />
(FIG. 3) in an attempt to shield the illicit enterprise from<br />
effective enforcement.<br />
Illicit actors use legitimate encrypted technologies<br />
and proxy connections such as the TOR browser and<br />
virtual private networks (VPNs to “cover the tracks”<br />
of traffic to an IPR-infringement-based site, attracting<br />
individuals seeking to obtain pirated content undetected.<br />
FIG. 3: Evasive Tactics Used to Offer or Access Unlicensed Content.<br />
SECTION 1<br />
Use of an anonymizing<br />
service, such as a nologging<br />
virtual private<br />
network (VPN) service<br />
Use of reverse proxy<br />
sites to re-route traffic<br />
to bypass a court<br />
injunction<br />
Hosting infringing<br />
content in multiple<br />
offshore havens in an<br />
attempt to stay<br />
beyond reach of<br />
enforcement<br />
Use of peer-to-peer<br />
(P2P) networking<br />
technology, including<br />
via BitTorrent protocol<br />
Ecouraging seeding of<br />
third-party content<br />
22