Advanced Television

Motion Picture Association

World’s largest live sports piracy ring shut down

In collaboration with Egyptian authorities, antipiracy coalition the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has confirmed the shutdown of the Streameast piracy network. Through its 80 associated domains, the network logged more than 1.6 billion visits in the past year, making it the largest illicit live sports streaming operation in the world. “Today, ACE scored […]

September 3, 2025By Colin Mann

Argentina: Piracy network taken down

In a new decisive step in the fight against organised crime in the audiovisual industry, a massive operation in Argentina has dismantled a criminal network with up to 8 million paying users worldwide and a potential reach of over 20 million clients. The operation, led by the Argentine judiciary, involved technical collaboration from La Liga, […]

September 3, 2025By Colin Mann

ACE shutters NC-based IPTV service

Building on its global efforts to combat illegal streaming operations, antipiracy coalition the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has reached a settlement with the operators of Rare Breed IPTV. As part of the agreement, the operators will permanently shut down their illegal service and pay a significant financial settlement. Rare Breed IPTV was an […]

August 7, 2025By Colin Mann

$7.5m damages in Seattle counterfeit DVD case

A federal court in Seattle has issued a default judgment in favour of Amazon and studio plaintiffs Paramount, Universal, Warner Bros and HBO in a joint action targeting an international counterfeiting operation that sold fake DVDs on Amazon. The ruling grants all requested relief—including more than $7.5 million (€6.5m) in statutory damages and broad injunctive […]

June 19, 2025By Colin Mann

MPA welcomes Notorious Markets List

Trade body the Motion Picture Association (MPA) has welcomed the publication by the Office of the US Trade Representative of its 2024 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy (the Notorious Markets List). MPA Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin said: “Every year, the Notorious Markets List identifies the world’s most brazen criminal operations that […]

January 10, 2025By Colin Mann

Study: Filipino content pirates risk cyber threats

A new study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) showed that Filipino consumers who access piracy sites and services are at severe risk of cyber threats such as identity theft and ransomware. The study found Filipinos are up to 33 times more likely to encounter a cyber threat on the most popular piracy sites […]

November 14, 2024By Colin Mann

Philippines: Site-blocking recommendations

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) has issued two requests to disable access to six domains and subdomains found pirating movies, a move that coincided with the celebration of National Anti-Piracy Month during October. One of the requests covered the blocking of SFlix sites, namely sflix.to, sflix.se and sflix.is. The other dealt with […]

October 30, 2024By Colin Mann

ACE welcomes Germany illicit IPTV conviction

Anti-piracy coalition the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) says it applauds the criminal court in Stuttgart, Germany for sentencing the four operators of a pirate IPTV service for copyright infringement and commercial gang fraud. ACE also commends the Esslingen police for its investigation. ACE had filed a claim to support the ongoing criminal prosecution […]

October 23, 2024By Colin Mann

MPA hires ex-FBI agent

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has hired Bryan Willett, a supervisory special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as Vice President, Content Protection Enforcement for the Americas region. Willett’s hire is the latest in the continued expansion of the MPA’s content protection efforts, including its global antipiracy programme, the Alliance for Creativity and […]

October 22, 2024By Colin Mann

Anthonis to head MPA EMEA

Emilie Anthonis is to become the new President and Managing Director for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region of trade body the Motion Picture Association (MPA), effective January 1st 2025. She will succeed Stan McCoy, who is stepping down after more than a decade of transformational leadership. “Emilie is a veteran of the […]

October 7, 2024By Colin Mann