16 Sports Piracy Websites Shut Down Before Super Bowl
(SPORTS TECHNOLOGY)
Just three days before the new Super Bowl (XLVI), the United States got a stranglehold on 16 websites that shared streamed sports broadcasts and PPV sports programming and seized their property. One Michigan resident allegedly owns nine of the sites. The government says that these 16 piracy websites were basically link directories that provided people with hosted broadcasts of footage from the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, National Football League, TNA Impact Wrestling, and World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.
The US prosecutors responsible for delivering the message also said that the piracy cost broadcasters and their respective sports leagues millions of dollars per year. They continued, saying that some of the lost money is compensated for by people who purchase tickets to events and those who subscribe to sports television networks. US Attorney Preet Bharara, the person who announced this news, says that "these websites and their operators deprive sports leagues and networks of legitimate revenue" and used the words "virtual thievery" to describe what the websites did.
The websites caught by prosecutors include youwwe.net/.com, firstrowsports.com, firstrow.tv, firstrowsports.net, hq-streams.tv, soccertvlive.net, robplay.tv, sports95.com/.net/.org, sportswwe.net/.tv/.com, and xonesports.tv. Most of these websites have the same domain name, but purchase multiple top-level domains (TLDs - i.e. ".com" and ".net") to ensure others don't make a knock-off version of their sites.
Now, here's a funny thing. While prosecutors were announcing their brave triumph over piracy on Thursday, Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots, told the press that he actually used one of these sites to view sports info. Tom Brady is going to play against New York Giants this Sunday in the Super Bowl.
"Last year, you know, I was rehabbing my foot, you know, in Costa Rica, watching the game on an illegal Super Bowl website," said Brady. "And now I'm actually playing in the game. So it's pretty cool."
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Miguel Leiva-Gomez is a professional writer with experience in computer sciences, technology, and gadgets. He has written for multiple technology and travel outlets and owns his own tech blog called The Tech Guy, where he writes educational, informative, and sometimes comedic articles for an audience that is less versed in technology.
Edited by Rich Steeves
