Anti-piracy success in Rennes

[AlphaKing]

Following a joint complaint filed by the Canal+ Group, beIN Sports and RMC Sport, in collaboration with anti-piracy group l’Association de Lutte contre la Piraterie Audiovisuelle (ALPA), and a preliminary investigation conducted by the Cybercrime Group of the Research Section of the National Gendarmerie of the French city of Rennes, the alleged creators and administrators of beinsport-streaming.com were arrested in June 2018 and will be tried shortly in the Tribunal Correctionnel (Correctional Court) of Rennes.

The beinsport-streaming.com platform, which has since been closed by the authorities, offered some twenty pirate sites, streaming many programmes and live sports events, coming from the main French sports broadcasters, all totally illegally .

During their last six months of activity, beinsport-streaming.com sites were visited by nearly 500,000 Internet users per month. The administrators were remunerated through the display of advertising banners.

A large amount of money has been seized. Among the charges that can be held against the accused are that of counterfeiting in organised gangs, as well as that of aggravated money laundering. The accused face 10 years imprisonment and fines of €750,000.

ALPA, beIN Sports, the Canal+ Group and RMC Sport welcome the work done by the Cybercrime Group. According to them, piracy of sports content is a growing and multifaceted scourge that is impacting the entire sporting ecosystem, from professional sports to amateur sport, as well as the media and pay-TV industry.

“It is the responsibility of all involved to lead a common front against the fraudulent dissemination of the intellectual property rights of rights holders and official broadcasters,” they declare.