LOS ANGELES—As part of its campaign to stop the illicit hosting of digital piracy content, the MPA's Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), has shut down Streamzz, an illegal file hosting service with global reach.

Operated out of Ahlen, Germany, Streamzz logged more than 7 million monthly visits prior to its closure. One-third of that traffic originated in Germany, followed by the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Hungary, the group reported. 

Operating since 2019, Streamzz hosted and streamed more than 75,000 movies and 15,000 TV series episodes, affecting all ACE members.

The service was used by more than 60 websites offering pirated content.

“The shutdown of Streamzz is fresh proof that no one in the content piracy ecosystem – whether they’re a streaming service, video streaming host or anything in between – is above the law,” said Jan van Voorn, executive vice president and global content protection chief of the Motion Picture Association and head of ACE. “We will target piracy services of various kinds in order to protect the global creative economy.”

ACE worked with Constantin Film, a member of the coalition, on this action.

“Piracy continues to undermine the legal market and the investment into new and exciting content," explained Philipp Wohlfrom, executive vice president of international licensing and head of anti-piracy at Constantin Film. "This action is a massive success for rightsholders in Germany and across the world and we are proud to work with ACE to support their ongoing efforts to protect copyright and fight piracy."

LOS ANGELES—Anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) says it has shut down Extreme-down, which it says is France’s second most popular illegal streaming and direct download site.  

ACE said it had located the operator in Houmt Souk, Tunisia, contacted the operator who subsequently ceased  operations and transferred all domains to ACE. The domains now redirect to the “Watch Legally” page on the ACE website.  The service had more than 14 million visitors each month. 

“Thanks to ACE’s rapidly expanding global network, we are in a better position than ever to act decisively against illegal piracy operators in all markets across the world,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Global Content Protection Chief of the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE. “Extreme-down offered a large library of TV series and movies in French and original versions; we counted more than 40,000 movies and TV series episodes affecting ACE members. That library is now closed.” 

French premium television channel providers and ACE members CANAL+ and France Televisions worked closely with ACE and local authorities on this action. 

“CANAL+ Group has fought content piracy for years and, as a member of ACE, we are particularly pleased with the takedown of this notorious illegal website,” said Celine Boyer, Global Head of Content Protection at CANAL+ Group. “The elimination of this website is a massive success for the protection of rights holders in French-speaking countries.” 

“The damaging effects of piracy cannot be overstated, especially for a global public service media company like ours,” said Nathalie Bobineau, Senior Vice President of International Development for France Televisions. “We applaud the efforts of ACE in their fight to defend copyright and successfully close down a piracy operation of this magnitude. ACE is currently the only organization able to give powerful and efficient support to our relentless fight against piracy worldwide, and we will continue to work with ACE to combat illegal operations that threaten legal content creators.”  

LOS ANGELES—A group of Hollywood studios has won a permanent injunction against Vader Streams, which they accused of illegally streaming hundreds of TV shows and movies to online audiences in the United States and Canada. The injunction was issued by the Federal Court in Canada against Vader Streams, which also slapped a $10 million fine on the pirate.

The group, which calls itself the “Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment,” includes most of the world’s largest entertainment conglomerates including Sony, Netflix, Warner Bros. and Disney, filed its lawsuit in January 2018.

The group said Vader was a key part of a complicated, IPTV piracy network, which until recently was feeding more than 200 dealers of illicit content with unauthorized access to 1,300 live streaming television channels and a library of up to 2,400 movies and 350 television shows. The unauthorized television streams included live events, sports, pay-per-view and premium pay channels.

The lawsuit was specifically tied to devices that use Kodi “add-on” software to stream content. ACE had also recently scored victories against other Kodi-based streamers including TickBox and Dragon Box.

“On behalf of all ACE members, I applaud the Court’s decision to permanently put an end to piracy operations conducted by Vader Streams,” said Charles Rivkin, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. “Actions like these can help reduce piracy and promote a dynamic, legal marketplace for creative content that provides audiences with more choices than ever before, while supporting millions of jobs in the film and television industry.”

The injunction issued by the Federal Court in Canada requires Vader Streams to:

• Cede administrative control over the entire Vader piracy infrastructure.
• Permanently cease and desist from developing, operating, promoting or selling subscriptions to unauthorized or unlicensed piracy feeds of any kind.
• Permanently cease and desist from developing, updating, hosting or promoting Kodi add-ons or repositories that enable access to pirated content.

“Today is a significant achievement for ACE in our ongoing efforts to protect the creative content of our members,” said Jan Van Voorn, executive vice president and chief of Global Content Protection at the Motion Picture Association of America. “ACE is committed to an all-of-the-above approach to reduce the theft and illegal distribution of films and television programs. This enforcement action is one of the many legal and operational tools ACE deploys to protect the legitimate market for creative content.”

“This strong and appropriate action by the Federal Court is a clear demonstration that the Canadian legal system is prepared to take the necessary steps to combat content theft,” said Robert Malcolmson, senior vice president, Regulatory Affairs and Government Relations, Bell Canada. “Illegal streaming services like Vader Streams cause serious harm to creators and distributors, the entire broadcasting and cultural sectors and ultimately Canadian consumers.”

LOS ANGELES--A group of streaming services and studios are taking legal aim at Setvnow, a subscription video service based in Florida that, they claim, is selling a package of TV channels, movies and other content illegally.

The complaint, filed in the United States District Court Central District of California, Western Division, comes way of a group that includes, Amazon, Netflix, Columbia Pictures, Disney, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal City Studios, Universal and Warner Bros., over allegations that Setvnow is pirating content and “inducing mass infringement” of copyrighted material by packaging it into a service that could look legitimate to the untrained eye.

The service being targeted, called Set TV, is offering a lineup of more than 500 channels that starts at $20 per month (for up to three devices per account) via an app for Android TV boxes, Android phones, Amazon Fire TV devices and browsers. Set TV has also set up a way to deliver service using Kodi add-ons.

Set TV’s basic package of hundreds of channels includes BBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, ABC, CBS, HBO, Nickelodeon, A&E, Bravo, MTV, NBA TV, ESPN, among many others. In addition to selling the basic package on a month to month basis, Set TV is also selling discounted three-month, six-month and 12-month subscriptions.

[Read: OTT Revenues ‘To Reach $120 Billion By 2020’]

Set TV, which also sells a pre-loaded, internet-connected TV device for $89 that runs its service (called the SP-110), notes on its web site that it’s selling the service worldwide to anyone with an internet connection. In addition to selling the service directly, Set TV has also set up a reseller and affiliate program.

However, the plaintiffs claim that Setvnow is obtaining content and distributing it illegally.

“For the customers who use Setvnow, the service provides hallmarks of using authorized streaming services—a user-friendly interface and reliable access to popular content—but with a notable exception: the customers only pay money to Defendants, not to Plaintiffs and other content creators upon whose copyrighted works Defendants’ business depends,” the suit contends.

Setvnow has been asked for comment.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), a global coalition that identifies and coordinates strategies against alleged content pirates on behalf of partners that include the SVOD services and studios, said it filed the suit against the service and two individuals, Jason Labossiere, said to be the site operator and domain registrant of www.setvnow.com, and Nelson Johnson, a partner in Set Broadcast LLC.

ACE has also gone after other services it believes to be accessing and distributing content illegally, including TickBox (a preliminary injunction was handed down in mid-February) and Dragon Box that, ACE claims, used software tools to “scour the internet” for sources of infringing content and assembling them into illegal, paid video services.

ACE and its backers have been on the legal offensive amid a growing threat from a new class of video pirates that have become increasingly sophisticated via the use of fancy interfaces along with customer service infrastructures that help these illegal services appear legitimate to consumers.

“The technology makes the presentation of these pirate sites look pretty slick and, maybe to the untrained eye, seem halfway legitimate,” James Assey, executive vice president at the NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, said in an interview for a Multichannel News feature story on the topic.

“This is a whole new source of content,” noted Jan van Voorn, executive vice president and chief of global content protection at the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). “Just going after the box sellers is not going to impact this whole range of players in this field.”

“It can be used anywhere in the world that has reasonable broadband penetration and speed,” Mark Mulready, vice president of cybersecurity services at Irdeto, said. “It’s a significant and growing threat.”