Pressure is increasing on illegal IPTV services, but also on their users! Many sites have handed over their domain names to the authorities, who are beginning to take a strong interest in their customers. The party is over !
Digital piracy is on the rise, especially for live sports! In France, sporting events, and in particular football, are among the most popular illegal content since they represent 34% of total illegal access. The fragmentation of the sports offering on television can explain this rise in power. For enthusiasts, following a league or a team would mean paying subscriptions to Canal plus, BeIN sport, Amazon Prime, RMC Sport… In short, that would be a hell of a lot of money. So, obviously, IPTV is attractive! Presented in the form of an application or box to connect to your television, this Internet streaming channel and television service offers hundreds of pay channels as well as thousands of films and series for around a hundred euros – sometimes less. ! – per year. An unbeatable value for money and going against the grain of the policies of channels and platforms, whose prices continue to increase.
Faced with the abysmal shortfall of rights holders – estimated at one billion euros per year for the sports sector and 500 million euros for television channels – they have joined forces with Internet access providers and authorities. For now, they prefer to focus on network heads, broadcasters and cutting off streaming of sporting events, which means that end users escape any repression. However, the fight intensifies, and it may soon be the end of recess!
Fight against IPTV: users in the sights of rights holders
The ACE (Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment), an organization which represents the interests of studios and major platforms including Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Warner Bros, Netflix, and Canal+ in France, has just launched a new campaign. pressure to illegal IPTV. As reported TorrentFreak, it recently seized hundreds of service domain names and pirate sites. To do this, she begins by persuading them that it is in their interest to close the business and give them this address so as not to expose themselves to heavy sanctions. But sometimes it goes further and makes their sites redirect directly to the site of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), another organization representing the major studios.
Recently, this strategy was adopted with the domain “XNET Ultimate”, which was used to sell IPTV subscriptions – its slogan, “Why have cable TV when you can have XNET Ultimate”, was equivocal. Other similar domain names, including xnetiptv.com, xnet4k.com and xnet4k.com, have also stopped operating and now display an ACE prevention message: “This website is no longer available due to copyright infringement. Do not put yourself at risk by using or subscribing to illegal streaming services”. The user is then sent to the organization’s official platform. Since the start of the year, around 600 domains have displayed this ACE message. Platforms that have concluded an official agreement with the organization should logically benefit from the leniency of the courts.
But the big news is that, this time, users are also in the sights of rights holders! Indeed, users of these pirate services are now counted and registered as part of the MPA’s intelligence collection program. No more laughing! A way of crippling the general feeling of impunity that followers of this practice feel. Because, as a reminder, exploiting online content without authorization from rights holders engages the responsibility of both the unscrupulous service provider and its customers. For user customers, we then speak of concealment of counterfeiting. And they risk up to 300,000 euros fine and three years in prison… You have been warned!