Advanced Television

Piracy

Study: Bridgerton ‘most dangerous’ series to pirate

According to a study by data destruction and information security experts Secureteam, Bridgerton is the most dangerous series to stream illegally, as fans eagerly await its return. The study curated a list of 2023 and 2024’s most popular series and returning shows and ran torrenting and streaming URLs through a malware detection program. Some 70 […]

December 4, 2023

Continued Operation 404 success

Brazilian law enforcement authorities, together with authorities in Peru, have completed a further series of actions as part of the ongoing ‘Operation 404’, an initiative to tackle infringing services on the Internet, supported by IFPI and Pro-Música Brasil. Operation 404 continues to be one of the largest campaigns of its kind and involves a range […]

November 30, 2023By Colin Mann

ACE shuts down CimaClub piracy site

One of the largest piracy services in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region has been shut down in Egypt by the Egyptian police, in collaboration with the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the anti-piracy organisation. CimaClub enabled users to directly download or stream pirated content, offering a VoD library of nearly 50,000 movie and […]

November 27, 2023

Heavy fines for Astro piracy

The Johor Bahru Sessions Court in Malaysia has charged an individual, Lee Ah Moy,  for selling TV boxes pre-loaded with unauthorised Astro content under Section 43AA (1)(c) of the Copyright Act 1987. He was fined RM16,000 (€3,140) in default three months imprisonment. The offence was committed on November 3rd 2022 in a retail outlet in […]

November 22, 2023By Colin Mann

ACE shuts down Thailand-based torrent site

Anti-piracy body the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has shut down tt-torrent.com, a torrent website that was operated out of Thailand. The infringing site had been in operation since 2006, initially under the domain name Thailandtorrent.com and subsequently tt-square.com. TT-torrent.com was ranked the 156th most popular website in Thailand, according to Similarweb. The site […]

November 21, 2023By Colin Mann

Study: €500m hit in French TV piracy

Illegal viewing is estimated to account for €500 million in revenue loss a year for French thematic channels. Trade body A.C.C.e.S suggest that some 5.1 per cent of the population use illegal streaming platforms and IP boxes to access thematic content. This represents a loss of €63 per year, per individual, according to the study […]

November 20, 2023From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris

India: Major action to curb film piracy

With the Indian film industry facing losses of up to Rs. 20,000 crore (€2.2m) every year as a result of piracy, the country’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has taken strong steps to check film piracy in the country. After the Parliament passed the Cinematograph (Amendment) Act, 1952, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has […]

November 3, 2023By Colin Mann

ACE shuts down Georgian pirate sites

Anti-piracy coalition the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has worked closely with the country of Georgia’s Ministry of Finance to shut down two of the nation’s largest illegal streaming sites, adjaranet.com and imovies.cc. Over the past two years, adjaranet.com has amassed 140 million visits. During the same period, imovies.cc has attracted nearly 64 million […]

November 2, 2023By Colin Mann

ACE shuts down India sports piracy site

Anti—piracy body the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has shut down live sports piracy site Watchwrestling.ai and its associated domains, which were being operated out of India. ACE identified and confronted the site’s Uttar Pradesh-based operator, who transferred watchwrestling.ai and all associated domains to ACE. The sites now redirect to ACE’s ‘Watch Legally’ page. […]

October 26, 2023By Colin Mann

MultiChoice claims piracy victory

MultiChoice reports it has closed down a video pirate in Krugersdorp, a city north-west of Johannesburg, South Africa. Irdeto provides the protection for MultiChoice systems. The pirate, Pieter Lombard, was convicted for his role in facilitating unauthorised access to copyrighted content. Lombard was arrested on November 12th 2020 in Monument Park, Krugersdorp, with 12 illegal […]

October 25, 2023By Chris Forrester