Baidu again tops US list of websites fostering piracy

The United States has again put China's top search engine, Baidu Inc, on its annual list of "notorious markets" for counterfeit and pirated goods, fuelling US business community hopes for action in Congress against "rogue websites".

The US Trade Representative's office said this week that Baidu was the most prominent example of online services that use "deep linking" to steer buyers to "allegedly infringing materials, often stored on third-party hosting sites".

Deep links take web users to a specific point within a website without first going to the website's home page.

Baidu was recently ranked as the top most-visited site in China, and among the top 10 in the world, USTR said, as it released its annual list of notorious internet and physical markets two months earlier than usual.

It said it would now publish the list separately, instead of in a larger annual report on global intellectual property theft at the end of April.

The US Chamber of Commerce said Congress needed to pass legislation giving US courts new authority to block foreign websites that sell pirated or counterfeit goods from operating in the United States.

"Criminals who operate these markets are stealing the best of American creativity and innovation," Steven Tepp, senior director for internet counterfeiting and piracy at the business group, said in a statement.