{"id":79472,"date":"2024-10-04T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T09:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=79472"},"modified":"2024-10-04T09:00:39","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T09:00:39","slug":"telegrams-response-to-piracy-has-improved-since-ceos-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=79472","title":{"rendered":"Telegram\u2019s Response to Piracy Has Improved Since CEO\u2019s Arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"telegram-pirates-2\"<\/a>When news broke in August that Telegram founder Pavel Durov had been arrested after his private plane touched down in France, speculation on the reasons behind that were in plentiful supply.<\/p>\n

After letting the rumor mill boil for a few days, French authorities said they had charged Durov with criminal offenses related to his role at Telegram and the platform\u2019s \u201cnear-total absence\u201d of cooperation with French authorities. After initially being quite bullish, Durov appeared to adopt a more conciliatory tone, noting that staff had deployed AI tools in an effort to remove problematic content.<\/p>\n

Telegram Promises to Comply With Valid Legal Requests<\/h2>\n

Another supposed change was an update of Telegram\u2019s terms of service and privacy policy, to make it clear that in response to valid legal requests, Telegram will in future hand over alleged infringers\u2019 personal details, including IP addresses and telephone numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t let bad actors jeopardize the integrity of our platform of almost a billion users,\u201d Durov said.<\/p>\n

While Telegram has a reputation for failing to live up to rightsholders\u2019 standards, the platform has blocked many piracy-related channels in recent years. On the user data front, in 2022 a court in India ordered<\/a> Telegram to hand over information to identify alleged infringers. The company appeared to drag its feet, but there were clear indications that the platform eventually complied.<\/p>\n

As previously reported<\/a>, Telegram recently took action against Z-Library\u2019s channels on copyright grounds, although who or what prompted that is still unclear. In any event, it appears that Telegram\u2019s approach to moderation is changing, including reports from France that rightsholders have witnessed a shift too.<\/p>\n

Takedown Speed Increases Considerably<\/h2>\n

Following Durov\u2019s assurances that Telegram would start cooperating more with the authorities, reports began to emerge that some pirates, who presumably (and naively) considered Telegram a safe haven, are now feeling a little spooked. <\/p>\n

Indeed, in an interview with Le Figaro<\/a>, the CEO of anti-piracy company LeakID confirmed that for some football-focused streamers, the pressure was beginning to show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have learned from concordant sources that at least three major streamers are stopping,\u201d Herv\u00e9 Lemaire told the publication, adding that Telegram also appears to be more responsive to takedown requests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe noticed that Telegram closed illicit streams more quickly, in 10, 15, 20 minutes, whereas this was not the case before,\u201d Lemaire added. \u201cPreviously, Telegram generally took 24 to 48 hours to close these pirate links.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar changes were also observed at beIN Sports, a company that sees most of its content pirated on a continuous basis, with Telegram-based pirates typically playing a role in illicit distribution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have indeed seen a significant drop in streams of pirated content on Telegram in recent days,\u201d confirmed Sarah d\u2019Arifat, legal director at beIN Sports. \u201cHowever, it is still too early to draw any conclusions, even if we hope that this improvement will be confirmed over time.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMafia Groups\u201d on Telegram<\/h2>\n

The Association for the Protection of Sports Programs (APPS) counts several major rightsholders and broadcasters among its members, including Canal+, beIN Sports, the Professional Football League (LFP) and the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF). <\/p>\n

In an August interview<\/a>, APPS president Xavier Spender described IPTV providers and illegal streamers operating on Telegram as organized criminals, and Telegram as falling short on cooperation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you have to keep in mind is that today the players on these platforms are real mafia groups. They make a significant profit from this activity of pirating content, whether it is sports content or other types,\u201d Spender said. \u201cTelegram is not very responsive when asked to cut off streams, that\u2019s clear.\u201d <\/p>\n

So with the more recent changes, are rightsholders optimistic for the future?<\/p>\n

Luke-Warm Reception From Other Rightsholders<\/h2>\n

\u201cTelegram\u2019s announcement of increased moderation and collaboration with the French justice system also appears to concern illegal sports broadcasts: blocking and announcements of the cessation of illegal broadcasts of sports content by streamers,\u201d Spender confirmed to Le Figaro.<\/p>\n

For the Professional Football League, which suffers high levels of piracy along with its football counterparts all over Europe, any positive change is welcomed. In Telegram\u2019s case, however, much more will be needed to effectively tackle the unique problems associated with piracy of live sports, in particular the need for ultra-fast takedowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cTelegram\u2019s initial efforts are interesting but not sufficient,\u201d the LFP said. \u201cThe removal times observed on Telegram remain random and can still extend to several hours. These times are therefore unfortunately still not, overall, compatible with the effective protection of content broadcast live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herv\u00e9 Lemaire at Leak ID prefers to see how Telegram handles big events before drawing any firm conclusions. But of course, he\u2019s seen it all before and understands the brutal reality of fighting piracy online, even if Telegram suddenly meets demanding industry standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it is no longer Telegram, the streamers will go to something else,\u201d he said. \u201cAll platforms must play the game. Telegram is a step. But it is not the end of the war.\u201d<\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

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When news broke in August that Telegram founder Pavel Durov had been arrested after his private plane touched down in France, speculation on the reasons behind that were in plentiful supply. After letting the rumor mill boil for a few days, French authorities said they had charged Durov with criminal offenses related to his role […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/79473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}