Dismantling the world's largest copyright infringement ring based in Vietnam

(To Quoc) - The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world's leading anti-piracy alliance, has just announced the dismantling of a "notorious" live sports piracy ring based in Vietnam and widely accessed globally.

The largest ever live sports piracy crackdown involved Vietnam-based pirated website Markkystreams[dot]com and 137 directly linked domains.

One of the sites that was recently shut down

Combined, the network’s illegal sites have recorded 812 million visits over the past 12 months, making it one of the largest sports piracy networks in the world and the largest ever taken down by ACE. The sites shut down include notorious sports piracy sites such as bestsolaris[dot]com, streameast[dot]to, markkystreams[dot]com, crackstreams[dot]dev and weakspell[dot]to.

Through an in-depth global investigation, ACE identified and approached the operators of these websites in Hanoi, who agreed to immediately transfer 138 domain names to ACE.

“The dismantling of this notorious global live sports piracy ring is a major victory in the fight against live sports piracy and follows other recent successes by ACE and law enforcement in Vietnam,” said Larissa Knapp, Executive Vice President and Director of Content Protection at the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA).

Larissa Knapp also said: “ACE members in the live sports sector face a particular threat when it comes to digital piracy, as live sports broadcasts lose significant commercial value as soon as the game ends. This takedown is a warning to pirate operators everywhere – including those in the live sports sector – that ACE will identify and shut down their illegal activities.”

Primarily targeting audiences in the United States and Canada, the sites stream live sports events daily, including content from all U.S. sports leagues and global leagues of every category. The breach affected all ACE members, including sports members beIN Sports, Canal+, and DAZN.

Ed McCarthy, CEO of DAZN, said: “It is pleasing that an illegal operation of this scale has been dismantled. Piracy often compromises the security of fan data, which is then used for illegal purposes, so shutting down this piracy ring has the added benefit of directing potential viewers to legitimate content providers like DAZN.”

All websites will be redirected to ACE's "Legal Viewing" page.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting legitimate creative marketplaces and reducing digital piracy. Using a comprehensive approach to combating piracy, through criminal filings, civil litigation and collaborative efforts, ACE has successfully taken enforcement actions globally against unlicensed streaming services and unauthorized content sources and the entities that operate them.

Drawing on the collective expertise and resources of more than 50 global media and entertainment companies, including sports networks and associations, and bolstered by the content advocacy work of the Motion Picture Association of America, ACE champions creativity and innovation, driving global growth in core entertainment and copyright industries. Current ACE board members include Amazon, Apple TV+, NBCUniversal, Netflix Studios LLC, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Warner Bros. Charles Rivkin is Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association and Chairman of ACE./.

Source: https://toquoc.vn/triet-pha-duong-day-vi-pham-ban-quyen-lon-nhat-the-gioi-co-tru-so-tai-viet-nam-20241224084240714.htm