Online Pirate Hunters
The Czech anti-piracy company Warezio, which works for various international rightsholders, believes that it can motivate people to report pirate streaming links through a gamified experience. The company recently launched a new platform, inviting the public to help spot links to pirated content. The ‘Online Hunter’ portal effectively turns people into pirate ‘hunters.’ As the name suggests, users of the site can report pirate links on various platforms and earn points when these are reviewed and approved. There’s a wide variety of content that users can report, ranging from blockbuster movies to current live streaming events.
Newly discovered live streaming links have the most value, while previously reported content doesn’t bring in many points. With sufficient points, users can then buy vouchers for online streaming services such as Netflix, HBO, or Oktagon MMA, which is an official partner.
The new portal has not been widely promoted because Warezio prefers a soft launch. However, the first links have already been submitted. This is in part due to targeted promotion, which showed a banner to a select group of Oktagon streamers during the last event.
‘Online Hunter’ is currently targeted at countries in Eastern and Central Europe, but Warezio’s Jakub Hájek informs TorrentFreak that he hopes to expand it to Western Europe in the near future. That might also open the door to more rightsholders, he says, as “reporting to the authorities” is generally frowned upon in Eastern Europe.
Pirates Knock Out?
At the moment, Oktagon MMA is the only named partner. The MMA organization operates based on a pay-per-view model, which makes it more vulnerable to piracy than traditional VOD platforms. “The financial damages caused by piracy are noticeable,” Oktagon’s Martin Šteso tells TorrentFreak Šteso explains that the company previously relied on its social media team to track down infringing streams. However, that approach had significant limits in scale and reach, especially when dealing with a range of semi-private communities on services such as Discord. By crowdsourcing detection of piracy threats that automated tools typically miss, Oktagon hopes to fight back against pirate streaming. “The main goal is to uncover piracy groups, particularly those operating on platforms like Discord, that are otherwise incredibly difficult to detect. Because many of these communities are private and restricted to smaller circles, manual detection is nearly impossible,” Šteso notes.Points, Levels and Leaderboards
‘Online Hunter’ currently supports reporting links on nine platforms: Discord, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, Twitter/X, YouTube, and ok.ru. As users report more links, they can reach new levels and climb the public leaderboard as their approved points increase. Whether this gamified approach will appeal to the public at large has yet to be seen. Currently, there are just a few active flaggers on the platform, according to the leaderboard.
Warezio certainly believes in the project, and the company informs us that more rightsholders are welcome to get in touch if they actively would like to participate.
Oktagon MMA hopes that ‘Online Hunter’ will ultimately become a household tool to identify hidden pirate communities. Thus far, the MMA organization has promoted ‘Online Hunter’ to a select group of users, but a broader promotion is also being considered.
Whether crowdsourced human intelligence is a durable addition to automated anti-piracy tools remains to be seen, but a project like Online Hunters will certainly get people talking.
Source: torrentfreak.com
Ahead of next month’s Super Bowl LX, which NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service hopes will be its largest-ever live viewership (along with the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy), there is growing concern about the rise in streaming sites offering illegal access to live sports.
A 2025 study found that 69% of sports fans in the United States and Europe have turned to illegal streams as the subscription cost of their platforms rise. In the United Kingdom, approximately 4.7 million adults (9%) confessed to using illegal streams for sports.
Worse still, 58% of sports fans in the United Kingdom now consider illegal streaming to be “socially acceptable,” according to new data from Nielsen — viewing it as a response to an overpriced and complicated legal market to access their favorite teams.
Illegal sites in the United Kingdom, which showcase soccer, boxing, tennis, cricket, as well as movies and TV shows, reportedly attracted 1.6 billion views in the first half of 2025. Analysts contend the trend could see sports leagues worldwide lose upwards of $28 billion annually in revenue due to piracy.
In addition to revenue loss, illegal live streams pose a risk to the end user. A study by OpenText Security Solutions found that nearly every illegal streaming service exposed users to malicious or misleading content, including malware, spyware, phishing, junk security software, explicit content, fake operating systems and related online scams.
The NFL, NBA and UFC have urged the U.S. government to update the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). They argue that live sports are uniquely vulnerable because their value depreciates instantly after the event ends, requiring faster, “real-time” takedown powers.
In 2023, Peacock and EverPass, a media platform distributing live sports and entertainment content to commercial businesses, created Peacock Sports Pass to discourage individual third party subscribers from using personal subscriptions at commercial businesses.
“Accessing ‘NFL Sunday Ticket’ and Peacock sports content in commercial establishments such as bars, restaurants, and other businesses through unauthorized channels and residential subscription services (a Peacock subscription) or other unauthorized third-party platforms is unlawful,”EverPass wrote in a post. The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), whose members includes Amazon, Disney, Netflix, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, last month hailed the shutdown of the pirate site Streameast, calling it a “resounding victory” for the entire live sports ecosystem. “Piracy isn’t a harmless shortcut as it exposes consumers to real risks and drains resources from India’s creative economy,” Larissa Knapp, EVP and chief content protection officer at the Motion Picture Association, said in a statement. “Our actions make clear that ACE will relentlessly pursue and dismantle illegal operations so audiences and creators can benefit from a secure, sustainable marketplace.” X, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok all say that they remove illegal content streams from their platforms as soon as they are made aware of it. Source: mediaplaynews.com The pirate service Bitplay, which, among other things, illegally provided access to premium sports television channels, live broadcasts of sports matches and selected series content, has been shut down. The service was shut down following a criminal complaint by the Association of Commercial Television (AKTV) and a subsequent investigation by the Czech Police. The Association of Commercial Television Stations identified the pirate service Bitplay in mid-2025. Given that the operator did not cease its activities despite warnings from the legitimate copyright holders, the association’s members decided to take legal action against the operator. Together with its supplier, Warezio, which monitors the occurrence of illegally shared television content for television broadcasters, AKTV prepared evidence on the basis of which the law enforcement authorities identified the operator as a natural person. The Bitplay service, operating on the domains bitplay.my, starstreams.pro, starsites.fun and starlive.click, offered access to premium paid sports channels and broadcasts without the relevant licences from the rights holders. The service was promoted through social networks and other online channels and targeted Czech, Slovak and Polish users. “Illegal streaming harms broadcast rights holders, sports competition partners, and athletes and sports clubs themselves. Investment in quality content is only possible in an environment where copyright is respected and protected,” said Marek Singer, president of AKTV. “The action against Bitplay is another step in our systematic approach to combating the illegal distribution of our content. We will continue to actively take action against entities that unlawfully offer and monetise protected content.” In addition to the damage caused by piracy to copyright holders, the use of illegal services also poses a security risk to users. The biggest problem may be the misuse of personal or payment data, but also the unintentional downloading of various malicious software (viruses, malware, spyware, and more). In addition to actively protecting copyrights, the Association of Commercial Television Stations has long focused on educational activities. As part of these activities, it operates an information website on copyrights, which is available at NormalneLegalne.cz. Here, interested parties will find a directory of legal sources, a glossary explaining terms related to intellectual property protection, answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ), and regular news focused on internet piracy. LALIGA and Telefónica Audiovisual Digital (TAD) say they have judicial backing requiring NordVPN and ProtonVPN to prevent access from Spain to IP addresses where illegal transmissions of LaLiga matches have been verified. In a statement, the companies describe the precautionary measures from Commercial Court No. 1 of Córdoba as dynamic, with no right of appeal, allowing updated IP address lists to be supplied as new infringements are detected. The court decisions also recognise VPN providers as “technological intermediaries” falling within the scope of the EU Digital Services Regulation, and therefore subject to requirements to help prevent infringements using their infrastructure. The orders describe VPNs as “highly effective and accessible” tools that can distort a user’s apparent location and facilitate access to websites carrying protected content illegally, noting the defendants “acknowledge and even advertise” their ability to evade restrictions. LALIGA and TAD said the measures are intended to stop VPN services from contributing to the evasion of access restrictions already ordered by Spanish courts, referencing the December 2024 Barcelona Commercial Court No. 6 ruling that underpins LaLiga’s wider dynamic IP-blocking approach against piracy. The court also orders also require LALIGA and TAD to preserve sufficient digital evidence of the unlawful transmissions they notify to the VPN providers, supporting the evidential approach used under previous rulings. Source: broadbandtvnews.com
The Tokyo District Court ruled that Cloudflare, one of the world’s leading Content Delivery Network (CDN) service providers, is liable for the manner in which it provides its services, which facilitates copyright infringement. The dispute concerned the illegal distribution of popular manga titles with a global reach, including the ONE PIECE and Attack on Titan series. The lawsuit was filed by four leading Japanese publishers – Kadokawa, Kodansha, Shueisha and Shogakukan.
The case dealt with the operation of two large pirate websites that illegally made more than 4,000 manga titles available. The sites recorded over 300 million visits per month and used Cloudflare’s CDN services, which enable fast and efficient content distribution while making it difficult to identify the original servers.
The court found that the company’s liability did not lie in the CDN technology itself, but in the manner in which it provided its services. In particular, it criticised the absence of thorough customer verification procedures (Know Your Customer – KYC) and the inadequate response to repeated notifications of copyright infringement.
According to the court, providing easy access to services without thorough client identification gave pirate website operators a high degree of anonymity. This significantly complicated the normal legal steps taken by copyright holders to protect their works.
Based on these conclusions, the court ruled out the possibility of using the so-called safe harbour under Japan’s Information Distribution Platform Safety Act. It concluded that the company was aware of the illegal nature of the activities that its services enabled and had the technical ability to terminate them. Cloudflare was therefore ordered to pay approximately 500 million yen.
The decision fits into the broader international debate on the liability of digital intermediaries. Similar issues are also addressed by European law – for example, the Digital Services Act and the Copyright Directive strengthen the obligations of platforms in the area of due diligence and cooperation and limit exemptions from liability in cases where the intermediary does not act passively or respond to obvious infringements of the law.
The company is also facing regulatory measures in Italy. The regulatory authority AGCOM recently imposed a fine of over EUR 14 million on the company for violating anti-piracy legislation (Law No. 93/2023). According to the authority, the company failed to comply with an order to block access to illegal content reported by the rights holder through the Piracy Shield system and did not take sufficient technological and organisational measures to prevent the further dissemination of such content.
This development confirms that even technology intermediaries can be held directly liable if they fail to respond to clear and timely requests to remove illegal content.
Source: previti.it
Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at City of London Police has arrested 4 people and seized 10 servers in Manchester as part of an investigation into a large-scale illegal IPTV streaming service. Officers executed warrants last week, confiscating servers and associated equipment valued at around £75,000 each, with total seizures exceeding £750,000 (€866,000). The investigation began after Sky reported suspicious activity linked to an illicit streaming service. Investigators identified individuals believed to be operating an illegal IPTV operation supplying consumers across the UK, with one suspect alleged to have generated more than £3 million in revenue. During the raids, officers shut down the servers on site. Sky said the action caused widespread disruption to the service’s illegal streaming output across the UK. Detective Constable Jordan Day said the services are “organised criminal operations generating millions in illegal profits”, adding that working closely with partners such as Sky helps dismantle piracy networks and “send a clear message” to those behind them. Matt Hibbert, Sky’s Group Director of Anti-Piracy, said the broadcaster would continue working with police and industry partners to disrupt criminal networks, and warned consumers that illegal streams can expose devices and personal data to risks. He pointed to research from BeStreamWise suggesting nearly 65% of illegal streamers have faced security scares such as malware. Source: broadbandtvnews.com The US Department of Justice has issued seizure warrants against three US-registered internet domains tied to commercial websites allegedly operated from Bulgaria and accused of distributing copyrighted content without authorisation. In a statement, the department said the services offered pirated copies of movies, television programmes and other content, including video games, software and e-books. According to affidavits supporting the warrants, the three domains attracted “tens of millions” of visits a year, hosted “thousands” of infringed works and drove “millions” of downloads, with retail value totalling millions of dollars. The department said the sites were among the most popular in Bulgaria, with one frequently ranking in the country’s top 10 domains, and appeared to generate significant advertising revenue. Visitors attempting to reach the services will now see a seizure notice stating the domains are in US government custody and warning that wilful copyright infringement is a crime. The domains named in the action are zamunda.net, arenabg.com and zelka.org. The operation involved cooperation with Bulgarian agencies and Europol, one of a number of coordinated international law-enforcement operations to take place in recent weeks. The DOJ said it worked with Bulgarian partners including the National Investigative Service, the General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime, the State Agency for National Security and the Prosecutor’s Office, alongside US partners including the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, Homeland Security Investigations and the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center. The department said the investigation is being led by HSI, with prosecutors from the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and the Southern District of Mississippi, and support from its International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property programme based in Bucharest. Source: broadbandtvnews.com A coordinated international law-enforcement operation led by the Catania District Prosecutor’s Office and Italy’s Postal and Cybercrime Police has targeted an industrial-scale illegal IPTV network, with investigators naming 31 suspects following raids in 11 Italian cities and 14 countries. ACE said the action took offline infrastructure serving millions of users, while Italian authorities and supporting reports said more than 1,000 resellers in Italy were shut down and more than 125,000 end users were blocked in the country, with “millions” more impacted worldwide. The operation resulted in the seizure of three well-known illegal IPTV platforms – IPTVItalia, migliorIPTV and DarkTV – alongside associated websites and Telegram sales channels. Investigators said the services offered pirated live and on-demand programming from major rights holders and platforms including Sky, DAZN, Mediaset, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Paramount and Disney+. Authorities said the investigation grew out of leads and forensic work linked to a previous operation, Taken Down, and included network monitoring and financial tracing, including cryptocurrency flows. Reports also pointed to proEuropaTV being identified in Romania, distributing via six servers in Romania and an African country, and the discovery of a SIM farm in Naples with more than 200 phone cards. ACE and industry partners framed the takedown as timely ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, with DAZN saying the case showed the impact of “coordinated global action” against piracy that undermines investment and exposes consumers to fraud and cyber risks. Source: broadbandtvnews.com