To the unscrupulous, the US Trade Representative’s latest Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets reads like a handy guide to free and illicit stuff. It lists 16 websites and 17 places on earth “which exemplify the problem of marketplaces dealing in infringing goods and helping to sustain global piracy and counterfeiting”.

The list is controversial for other reasons, too. It names Baidu, the most visited site in China and one of the top ten in the world, as being “engaged in “deep linking” to allegedly infringing materials, often stored on third-party hosting sites”. But attempts to sue Baidu and others for deep linking have a chequered history. Continue reading »