Notorious Markets

This is a list of websites and physical markets that have not been listed by the Office of the United States Trade Representative for engaging in large-scale intellectual property infringement, including piracy and counterfeiting. Below is a list of sites that Drillimation Systems has designated as notorious and have yet to appear in the annual Notorious Markets List by the USTR.

Kiwi Farms

Kiwi Farms is an internet forum founded by Joshua “Null” Moon and other members from the fandom of the infamous Sonichu webcomic by Christopher Weston Chandler. Founded in the early 2010s, it gained notoriety for its largely unmoderated content by users due to it being designated as a place for “free speech”, creating an anarchy-like environment. It has been linked to white supremacism, neo-Nazism, the alt-right, hate crimes, suicides, as well as multiple mass shootings and swatting incidents. Users on the site often coordinate harassment campaigns against internet figures and steal their personal information, and users frequently make racist and antisemitic comments about these figures.

The site consistently demonstrates an adversarial relationship with rightsholders by facilitating the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material, including leaked proprietary media, private software builds, and commercially sensitive trade secrets. Rightsholders report that the site’s operator, Lolcow LLC, frequently ignores DMCA takedown notices and other formal requests to remove infringing content. In many instances, the site’s administration reportedly weaponizes these requests by publishing them to the forum, leading to further dissemination of the infringing material and targeted harassment of the rightsholders’ legal representatives. Nonetheless, it has become the target of multiple lawsuits from rightsholders and industry trade organizations.

Its popularity with far-right extremist and white supremacist groups, as well as the spreading of conspiracy theories, has led to constant attempts to get the site removed from the internet, and has been subject to blocking orders in multiple countries, including Australia and New Zealand. It has faced numerous deplatformings and suspensions from hosting providers and domain name registrars for violating their terms of service, often switching to competing services and changing to new web addresses to continue operating.

SKIDROW

SKIDROW (stylized in all caps) is a warez group and identified as one of the most prominent “scene” groups involved in the unauthorized circumvention of digital rights management and the subsequent distribution of pirated video game software, including multiple games in the Drillimation Danmaku Universe. Operating within a tiered “warez” ecosystem, this group targets high-profile developers in and outside the United States, often releasing cracked versions of games within hours of their official release.

While the group’s core operations are private, their releases are disseminated globally via a network of affiliated topsites and public-facing release portals. These websites exploit intellectual property to generate revenue through intrusive advertising, and in some cases, the bundling of malicious software. Rightsholders report that these activities cause significant economic harm to the gaming industry, undermining legitimate sales and devaluing the creative efforts of developers.

Furthermore, these portals frequently utilize reverse proxy servers and bulletproof hosting located in jurisdictions that are non-cooperative with international law enforcement. Governments around the world continue to urge authorities to investigate the underlying infrastructure supportings these groups and to take effective criminal and civil enforcement actions to disrupt the supply chain of pirated digital content.