![\"play-possum-s\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/play-possum-s.png\")
A man who previously admitted selling pirate TV devices recently appeared at Liverpool Crown Court for sentencing.<\/p>\nA man who previously admitted selling pirate TV devices recently appeared at Liverpool Crown Court for sentencing.<\/p>\n
Hoping for leniency on three counts of fraud, Jonathan Edge\u2019s defense evoked an image of a Robin Hood character stealing from the Premier League for the benefit of Sky TV-deprived local communities.<\/p>\n
That went as well as could be expected, especially in light of the defendant\u2019s previous convictions for fraud. That the piracy offenses took place while the Edge was on license following a three-year sentence for dealing cocaine, didn\u2019t help much either. In that context, none of which was mentioned in the press release<\/a>, the 40-month sentence handed down by the court doesn\u2019t sound especially excessive. <\/p>\n Edge\u2019s biggest mistake, however, was thumbing his nose at the Premier League. After takedown notices removed adverts for his service from Facebook and Instagram, he simply put them back up. Two years later, after signing a cease-and-desist order, Edge posted on social media that he would carry on regardless; he then went on to ignore multiple additional warnings. <\/p>\n Monitoring for compliance on home soil is trivial for the Premier League, but when similar understandings may have been breached in less predictable jurisdictions thousands of miles away, that brings a new set of challenges.<\/p>\n Previously the target of state-sponsored piracy as part of a wider diplomatic conflict, Qatar-based broadcaster beIN now faces similar piracy threats as its competitors. The same holds true for Miramax, the film and TV company 51% owned by beIN. <\/p>\n Every year the companies team up in a joint submission to the USTR\u2019s review of notorious markets, outlining what they believe are the most serious piracy threats. What caught our eye in the submission\u2019s browser-based streaming section is the number of sites that have faced enforcement action but through various means are effectively still in business.<\/p>\n MyCima was once one of the largest pirate sites in the Middle East. The operation, which was purportedly operated from Alexandria, boasted over 50 million monthly visits and offered 12,000 movies and 26,000 TV shows. Reportedly taken down<\/a> in February 2023, less than a month later there were already clear signs<\/a> of a revival or resurrection, maybe even some kind of rebirth, under the brand \u2018WeCima\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough MyCima was reportedly taken down by actions initiated by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) in February 2023, WeCima, a mirror version of MyCima with same content offered, was set up shortly after. It is already recording more than 18 million monthly visits,\u201d the submission notes.<\/p>\n Platforms like MyCima and WeCima use various strategies to stay online, including the use of up to hundreds of domains. The \u2018cima\u2019 domains shown below are now under the control of the MPA, which effectively puts them out of action. Under what terms control changed is unknown but it most commonly happens via some sort of agreement.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The USTR submission states that WeCima also uses multiple domains to stay online.<\/p>\n \u201cApparently as a strategy to evade further enforcement actions, several WeCima domains and subdomains (wecima.click, wecima.co, mycima.wecima.watch, wecima.icu and many more) are continuously registered pointing at WeCima.cam,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n Further action in Egypt last September led to the reported shutdown of Laroza<\/a> and the arrests of two alleged operators. Laroza was reportedly the largest pirate site in the Middle East and North Africa. <\/p>\n \u201cLaroza is one of the oldest and most popular pirate websites in the Middle East and has a vast library of Arabic and international movies and series. Despite Laroza [being] reportedly taken down by actions taken by rightsowners in September 2024, new copycat domains have appeared online with the most significant being www.larozaa.net,\u201d the report notes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cLaroza\u2019s operators have implemented an effective URL redirection strategy with redirections to multiple subdomains and TLD extensions applied daily or every other day. Some of their numerous domains used by the Laroza website are larona.one, laroza.vip, laroza.net, laroza.cam, laroza.tv, laroza.sbs among others. This strategy appears designed to circumvent enforcement and other disruption action taken by rights owners.\u201d<\/p>\n A similar situation surrounds Shahid4u, which was taken down by ACE and Egyptian authorities in February 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite its closure, many copycat websites quickly surfaced. As of this writing, one of the prominent replacements is the domain www.shahid4u.my, which continues to operate alongside other similar domains such as shahid4u.watch, shahid4u.to, shahiid4u.cam, and shahid4u.diy.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether the sites causing issues for beIN and Miramax are run by the same operators, their affiliates, or unconnected third parties, is difficult to prove. That being said, the speed at which they reappear in various forms suggests at least some preparation and does little to dampen suspicion. <\/p>\n To most users of these sites, if they look and perform as they used to, nothing else really matters. Whether that will have an impact on any deterrent effect intended by similar enforcement actions remains to be seen.<\/p>\n Popular live sports streaming platform Freestreams-live was targeted by none other than Homeland Security Investigations during the FIFA World Cup in 2022. Pursuant to a warrant issued by the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, US law enforcement seized freestreams-live1.com<\/em>, at the time the site\u2019s main domain. <\/p>\n After what appeared to be an effortless recovery, the site went on to deploy freestreams-live.ga and variants using the extensions .me, .im, .se, .top, .tv, and .nu. The submission notes that despite only being registered in April 2024, freestreams-live.my generated 11.8 million visits in August. Perhaps the seizure of a single domain should be viewed as symbolic of general intent rather than in any way effective.<\/p>\n The beIN and Miramax submission to the USTR is available here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\nNotorious Markets: beIN \/ Miramax Submission<\/h2>\n
WeCima<\/h2>\n
![\"wecima\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/wecima.png\")
<\/center><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/cima-seized.png\")
<\/center><\/p>\nShahid4u and Laroza<\/h2>\n
![\"larozaa-net\"](\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/larozaa-net.png\")
<\/center><\/p>\nAnd Finally<\/h2>\n