The ongoing fight against piracy by the entertainment industry has taken a new turn. The LA Times reported that the federal government has closed down a number of movie websites that has content available to download and stream. Piracy is a big problem on the net thanks to high speed broadband connections and search engines which make finding a movie simply a couple of mouse clicks away.
Last week the new Obama administration launched n initiative to stamp out piracy. This looks to be a first step with the feds shutting down nine websites responsible for streaming pirated movies to the world.
ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) chief John Morton trumpeted the bust as the beginning of a “long-term effort to turn the tables on these thieves.”
Movie streaming sites beware
Federal authorities announced that they had seized domain names from nine websites engaged in the “criminal theft of American movies and television.” The websites include TVShack.net, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org and Ninjavideo.net. Combined, the sites drew 6.7 million visitors a month, authorities said.
Officials also seized assets from 15 bank, investment and advertising accounts and executed residential search warrants in North Carolina, New York, New Jersey and Washington, according to a statement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which coordinated its investigation with the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.
The crackdown, which involved 100 agents working in 11 states and the Netherlands, was part of a renewed campaign dubbed Operation in Our Sites by federal authorities to curb Internet counterfeiting and piracy. The announcement comes a week after the Obama administration unveiled a detailed plan on how to tackle global piracy, including targeting illegal websites.
The difference between this bust and previous ones is that the websites in question did not actually offer the movies for download, but instead streamed the movies and TV shows. Previously, movie crackdowns had concentrated on sites that distributed movie files.
So could this be the end of illegal movie and tv streams? Well, this is a drop in the ocean of sites that provide this kind of content, and with new ones appearing every day plus most of the streaming coming from China who are no assistance to the US authorities. Dont bet on a pirate free web anytime soon.
Article source:http://www.worldtvpc.com/blog/federal-government-shuts-movie-streaming-websites/
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