{"id":84984,"date":"2025-09-07T09:01:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T09:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=84984"},"modified":"2025-09-07T09:01:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T09:01:33","slug":"u-s-governments-focus-on-sports-piracy-puts-spotlight-on-streameast-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=84984","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Government\u2019s Focus on Sports Piracy Puts Spotlight on Streameast Saga"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/streamco-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-271743\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/streamco-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/streamco-600x336.jpg 600w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/streamco-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/streamco.jpg 1270w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">Sports piracy made headlines this week when anti-piracy coalition ACE announced the shutdown of <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/ace-shuts-down-giant-streameast-piracy-ring-but-the-original-survives-250903\/\">the world\u2019s largest illegal sports streaming ring<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The operation, carried out by Egyptian authorities at the end of August, resulted in two arrests and the seizure of roughly 80 domain names. <\/p>\n<p>A website carrying the \u2018Streameast\u2019 brand was one of the main targets. This was indeed one of the larger pirate sports streaming portals. However, reports by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6591670\/2025\/09\/03\/streameast-worlds-largest-illegal-sports-streaming-platform-shut-down-in-sting\/\">The Athletic<\/a> and other news outlets concluded that the <em>original<\/em> Streameast site was shut down; that is not correct. <\/p>\n<p>In reality, this week\u2019s takedown targeted a massive \u2018copycat\u2019 network that simply copied famous \u2018pirate\u2019 site logos and branding to its own sites, to boost their popularity by passing off as the originals. This was corroborated by the operator of the original Streameast, who quickly clarified they have <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/ace-shuts-down-giant-streameast-piracy-ring-but-the-original-survives-250903\/\">no connection to the seized sites or to Egypt<\/a> where the enforcement action took place.<\/p>\n<h2>USTR puts a spotlight on Sports Streaming Piracy<\/h2>\n<p>While the distinction might seem minor, getting the facts right is crucial, especially when other prominent reports are also causing confusion. <\/p>\n<p>In this light, it is good to see that the U.S. Trade Representative recently announced that sports piracy will be the focus issue for its upcoming review of significant piracy and counterfeiting threats. The annual \u201cNotorious Markets\u201d overview is compiled with help from copyright holders and can be used to motivate foreign authorities to take action, with the emphasis on \u201cpiracy of sports broadcasts\u201d in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><center><em>Issue Focus<\/em><\/center><br \/><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ustrsport.jpg\" alt=\"focus issue\" width=\"600\" height=\"174\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-271756\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ustrsport.jpg 871w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/ustrsport-300x87.jpg 300w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/ustrsport-600x174.jpg 600w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/ustrsport-150x43.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The MPA, parent organization of the ACE coalition, is a regular \u2018notorious market\u2019 contributor. In its most recent submission last year, the group did not mention Streameast by name. Instead, Librefutbol.su, Librefutboltv.net, and Buffstreams.app<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/u-s-governments-focus-on-sports-piracy-puts-spotlight-on-streameast-saga\/#note\">(*)<\/a><\/sup> were the only featured sports streaming sites in its recommendation. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><center><em>From MPA\u2019s 2024 USTR recommendations<\/em><\/center><br \/><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/libre.jpg\" alt=\"libre\" width=\"600\" height=\"154\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-271750\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/libre.jpg 917w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/libre-300x77.jpg 300w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/libre-600x154.jpg 600w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/libre-150x39.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>With sports piracy as the focus issue, MPA may list more sports streaming targets in its upcoming recommendations. That will also be an opportunity to mention the shutdown of the world\u2019s largest illegal sports streaming ring as a recent key achievement, perhaps with additional context.<\/p>\n<h2>Streameast vs. Streameast<\/h2>\n<p>Additional eyeballs on sports streaming presents a good opportunity to clear up the Streameast confusion. <\/p>\n<p>After all, the original Streameast, which was targeted in a <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/feds-seize-domain-names-of-sports-streaming-site-streameast-240819\/\">crackdown by U.S. authorities last year<\/a>, remains online today. Perhaps that site is no longer considered a major threat due to more modest traffic, but the fact that it was targeted in a criminal investigation by the feds would at least warrant a mention.<\/p>\n<p>The Premier League and BeIN may be able to help with that, as these rightsholders previously flagged Streameast.app (the clone) as a notorious market. With the clone sites now shut down, the original Streameast is picking up extra traffic and that will automatically bring it back into focus. <\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Trade Representative\u2019s call for comments on the 2025 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy is available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalregister.gov\/documents\/2025\/08\/18\/2025-15675\/2025-review-of-notorious-markets-for-counterfeiting-and-piracy-comment-request\">in the Federal Register<\/a>. The deadline for submissions is October 1.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<br \/>\n<a name=\"note\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>note: Buffstreams.app is one of the domains that was recently taken down, likely as part of the Streameast operation. It is now under the control of MPA\/ACE. In last year\u2019s USTR submission, MPA said that the operators were believed to be in France.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From: <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/\">TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wpematico_credit\"><small>Powered by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wpematico.com\" target=\"_blank\">WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sports piracy made headlines this week when anti-piracy coalition ACE announced the shutdown of the world\u2019s largest illegal sports streaming ring. The operation, carried out by Egyptian authorities at the end of August, resulted in two arrests and the seizure of roughly 80 domain names. A website carrying the \u2018Streameast\u2019 brand was one of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84984","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\/84984","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=84984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}