It’s that time of year again: the air is crisp, winter decorations adorn homes, holiday parties abound—and yes, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) feels it necessary to call out “notorious markets.”

On Thursday, the USTR released its third-ever “Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets,” with mentions of many familiar names: vKontakte and The Pirate Bay for example.

Interestingly, the USTR has removed Taobao, a popular Chinese online shopping site, from this latest list “because it has undertaken notable efforts over the past year to work with rightholders directly or through their industry associations to clean up its site.” Still, the USTR warned the site would only stay off the list if it worked with American rights-holders to respond to notifications of violations.

“Similarly, Chinese website Sogou has been removed from the 2012 List based on reports that it has also made notable efforts to work with rights holders to address the availability of infringing content on its site,” the USTR added in the report (PDF).

Five other sites “were removed from this Notorious Markets list as a result of enforcement activities in 2012.” These include MegaUpload, btjunkie, Demonoid, Modchip.ca, and Consolesource. This doesn't mean the sites are gone for good, though. As we’ve reported, Kim Dotcom is prepping a new site and Demonoid’s BitTorrent tracker has been restarted.

“As a result of all these efforts, these eight Internet and physical markets are no longer included in the Notorious Markets List,” the USTR added. “The positive efforts undertaken at these markets appear to benefit US and other IPR rights holders. A market that is removed from the List may, however, be listed again in the future if corrective actions prove inadequate or short-lived. USTR will continue to monitor these markets.”

The new USTR also calls out 17 physical markets where counterfeit and pirated goods are sold, ranging in countries from Pakistan to Mexico. Our favorite description is of the Luohu Commercial Center in Shenzhen, China.

“The display of signs prohibiting the sale of such goods has reportedly not served as an effective deterrent,” the USTR states unironically.