Firstrowsports Among 16 Domains Seized in Government Crackdown on Illegal Streams

[hopkism]

FROM REUTERS VIA YAHOO NEWS

Three days before Super Bowl XLVI, U.S. prosecutors said they seized 16 websites that illegally streamed live sports and pay-per-view events over the Internet, and charged a Michigan man with running nine of those websites.

According to the government, the 16 websites provided links to give viewers easy access to other sites that hosted pirated telecasts from the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, World Wrestling Entertainment Inc ("WWE") and TNA Impact Wrestling. The latter is also broadcast on Viacom Inc's Spike TV.

Prosecutors said such piracy costs leagues and broadcasters millions of dollars a year, and some of this cost is passed on to ticket buyers and sports network subscribers.

"These websites and their operators deprive sports leagues and networks of legitimate revenue" in what amounts to "virtual thievery," said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan, who announced the website seizures.

The websites are firstrow.tv, firstrowsports.com, firstrowsports.net, firstrowsports.tv, hq-streams.tv, robplay.tv, soccertvlive.net, sports95.com, sports95.net, sports95.org, sportswwe.net, sportswwe.tv, sportswwe.com, xonesports.tv, youwwe.com and youwwe.net.

It was a couple of days ago, but upon attempting to watch the Superbowl tonight a certain someone was surprised to see it was seized - by Homeland Security though. That threw me for a loop. What does sports have to do with Homeland Security?

 

[alien51]

If there's any relevance, thepiratebay has now switched to .SE just this Feb, although the .ORG is still (surprisingly) accessible.

 

[liquidcherry]

"streamed live sports and pay-per-view events"...

Let me tell you a little story of mine what happened...tonight....

Over a year ago i had to make the decision: do i wanna have food on the table or do i need cable/dish TV....of course i went with the first.....since then i occasionally used streaming services(not the ones what makes you fill out some stupid survey and will generate a ton of money with it)....then things got a bit better(but not so good that i can afford cable or dish) but i got a good deal on my internet service what includes espn3 or like today nbc, to watch the SB....IT WAS THE WORSE STREAMING EXPERIENCE, ever...the problem i think is that the big companies just don't get it, how to please/or win customers.....they just rake in the big dollars since the cable/dish providers pay them whatever.....nbc's own feed i was watching was so bad(as an internet customer who just want to watch the game i don't care about 5 different options of cameras what killed the bandwidth even i have really good speed...), i ended up going to justin.tv and sure enough i had a clear stream with no lag or even a second of buffering compared to what happened for over a minute(and more after that) on nbc's original stream lol


If they would offer good alternatives to their internet customers, for a percentage of the money they charge to their regular subscribers and even with the cap of no HD or maybe more Ads, a lot of pirating would disappear....

just a little food for thought

cheers

liquid

 

[Dave_Z]

what does sports have to do with Homeland Security?

http://m.ice.gov/news/releases/1202/120202newyork.htm?f=m