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BREIN has just published its latest annual report, providing insights into the priorities of the organization and the progress being made. <\/p>\nBREIN has just published its latest annual report, providing insights into the priorities of the organization and the progress being made. <\/p>\n
This was BREIN\u2019s first year under new leadership. After Tim Kuik retired in 2024, Bastiaan van Ramshorst became the new director flanked by Birre B\u00fcller, the new head of legal affairs.<\/p>\n
Last week, the group published its 2024 annual report which shows that anti-piracy activities continue undeterred. BREIN completed 339 cases last year, of which 179 were marked as extensive investigations. As a result, 40 settlements were reached, including 7 \u201cknock & talks\u201d.<\/p>\n
In addition to these dedicated investigations, BREIN also continued its regular operations. This includes updating the pirate site blocklist used by local ISPs, to which 525 unique domains were added last year. At the end of 2024, 574 domains were blocked, up from 208 at the start of the year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/center><\/p>\nThe new target domain names were also reported to Google, which voluntarily removed these 525 domains from its search results. That comes in addition to the 166,945 individual Google search results BREIN asked the company to remove. <\/p>\n
The voluntary cooperation of Google is noteworthy and doesn\u2019t stop at delisting blocked domains. The company also helped to prevent the promotion of pirate IPTV services through its advertising business. This led to the drastic decision where Google updated its policy to no longer allow ads for the search term \u201cIPTV\u201d.<\/p>\n
As a result of this policy change, BREIN reported fewer IPTV advertisements last year. According to BREIN, action by Google was in part taken in response to complaints from the Dutch anti-piracy group. <\/p>\n
These restrictions are part of a broader theme in which IPTV is increasingly recognized as a major piracy threat. According to BREIN, IPTV is now considered the biggest threat to the audiovisual content industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Dutch fiscal police (FIOD) officially designated IPTV as a phenomenon in 2024. This means higher priority and more budget for combating illegal IPTV. As a result, there is more room for investigation and ultimately more criminal cases,\u201d BREIN writes <\/p>\n
\u201cIllegal IPTV also has the full attention of Europol, Eurojust and the EUIPO. Among other things, this regularly leads to criminal actions in the Netherlands at the request of foreign investigative agencies. Where possible, BREIN and foreign sister organizations of BREIN contribute to this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The added attention to the IPTV problem has resulted in several new criminal referrals by BREIN last year. The group expects that this will lead to new arrests and potential prosecutions in 2025, but as these investigations are ongoing, further details are currently unavailable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese cases are expected to result in arrests in 2025. Because of ongoing criminal investigations, BREIN can only make announcements about them after arrests have been made,\u201d BREIN writes.<\/p>\n
These IPTV actions are not limited to online operations; they also extend to offline marketplaces. Since the Beverwijk Bazaar<\/a> is seen as a hotspot for this activity in the Netherlands, BREIN has signed an agreement with the market to tackle the problem. <\/p>\n If stalls are caught selling illegal IPTV services and devices, in the first instance they receive a warning. If the activity continues, they can be fined, and if that does not solve the issue, tenants can lose their lease. <\/p>\n \u201cTwo tenants had their lease terminated in 2024 based on the agreements made,\u201d BREIN writes, adding that \u201crepeated checks and purchases at the Beverwijk Bazaar remain necessary to identify and deal with IPTV traders.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to the strong focus on IPTV, artificial intelligence is also flagged as a major threat. The group has identified several Dutch datasets that partly consist of copyright-infringing material and successfully shut these down<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cBREIN conducted extensive investigations into infringing datasets on which Generative AI models are trained and turned into unlawful AI models and was able to successfully complete the first AI investigations,\u201d BREIN writes. <\/p>\n Another series of Dutch-focused achievements came after the registry for .NL domains updated its policy to no longer allow intermediaries to register domain names. The EURid registry (.eu) has a similar policy which enabled BREIN to make 16 .NL and 7 .EU domains inaccessible<\/a>. <\/p>\n These changes are part of broader efforts to involve more intermediaries in the anti-piracy fight. For example, BREIN says it signed a confidential agreement with several Dutch hosting providers who will enforce a proper know-your-customer policy. That could lead to more enforcement action in the future. <\/p>\n All in all, it\u2019s been a productive year for BREIN. The full annual report<\/a> with more detail on specific actions and an overview of the key numbers, as summarized by BREIN, is available below. <\/p>\n \u2014<\/em><\/p>\n \u2022 339 files closed From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\nAI, NL and More<\/h2>\n
\n\u2022 179 investigations completed
\n\u2022 155 illegal sites\/services\/platforms stopped
\n\u2022 11 platforms, 9 IP addresses and 525 unique domains dynamically blocked at DNS level
\n\u2022 525 illegal websites completely removed from search results by Google iv
\n\u2022 160 proxies\/mirrors stopped
\n\u2022 46 illegal traders IPTV\/VOD subscriptions stopped
\n\u2022 14 IPTV ads removed by Google
\n\u2022 47 streaming sites taken offline
\n\u2022 3 major uploaders, administrators and\/or scripters investigated and stopped
\n\u2022 166,945 Google search results removed
\n\u2022 3,677 interventions involving removal of online ads for illegal copies
\n\u2022 40 settlements, including 7 \u2018knock & talks\u2019
\n\u2022 3 judicial ex parte orders obtained
\n\u2022 10 online cases involving physical media were handled
\n\u2022 14 checks conducted at record fairs
\n\u2022 16 .nl and 7 .eu domain names taken offline<\/p>\n