Federal Agents Bust Websites Illegally Streaming World Cup Matches
As the World Cup heads towards a dramatic conclusion in Qatar (Argentina faces France in the final Sunday), dozens of websites that have been streaming the matches illegally are out of the game.
On December 10, special agents from the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore field office, seized 55 internet domains for allegedly live-streaming World Cup matches in violation of the copyright held by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). FIFA holds exclusive rights to sanction and stage the World Cup.
“HSI Baltimore will continue to focus on removing websites that facilitate digital piracy, and other intellectual property violations, from the internet,” said special agent in charge of HSI Baltimore James C. Harris III in a press release.
HSI worked the case since September, when it received a tip from a FIFA representative “identifying several sites being used to distribute copyright infringing content, specifically World Cup games, without FIFA’s authorization.”
During the investigation, HSI also received “significant assistance” from the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), the organization that leads the government response to fighting global intellectual property theft.
Agents reviewed examples of the infringed content on the domain names which were “associated with a website offering free access to copyrighted digital media content – specifically, live streamed sessions of World Cup soccer games.”
And the websites had plenty of advertising, leading agents to believe the “purpose for distributing the infringing content is the private financial gain to these websites’ operators.” The domains in question were seized by the federal government to prevent further use.
IPR Center Director Jim Mancuso remarked, “When criminals pirate stolen content, they harm the economy and threaten people’s jobs.”
It was a comment echoed by Special Agent Harris who said, “While many may believe that such websites do not constitute serious threats, the infringement upon rights holders of any intellectual property is a growing threat to our economic viability.”