The Dutch anti-piracy organization BREIN reported that the European domain name registrar EURid transferred the domains of three illegal sites to the BREIN Foundation.
This followed an order from the Midden-Nederland court to the domain holder, who had not responded to that order. The domain holder’s information was found to be incorrect, which had resulted in suspension of registration for the domains in question.
The domains, gofastiptv.eu, acs-hosting.eu and iptvgo.eu, had been used for sale of illegal video subscriptions, but now redirect to a BREIN landing page that explains the domains are no longer in service, and further redirect to a resource to find legal content.
The end of a long story
BREIN said that this event was last chapter in the action against what was once largest provider of illegal IPTV subscriptions in the Netherlands, for which a summons had to be issued several times. The action started with the demand for name, address and place of residence details from a bank for an account that was used for illegal trade. The bank refused.
After a summons by BREIN, the court ruled that this refusal was unlawful and it was issued after all. The Dutch perpetrator eventually turned out to live in South America. He only responded after being summoned and settled the case with BREIN for 70,000 euros. Finally BREIN progressed transfer of the domain names The judge appointed BREIN as the exclusive representative and granted the warrant.
“The intermediaries involved could have cooperated faster and on a voluntary basis in ending this illegal trade and identifying the anonymous trader. That often happens, but in this case the practice turned out to be unruly. But perseverance wins, we persevered and in the end all our claims were met,” says BREIN director Tim Kuik.
Further reading
Domain transfer of illegal sites to BREIN. Article. August 8, 2023. BREIN
Why it matters
Illegal IPTV, often plug & play installed on media boxes, gives unauthorized access to thousands of TV channels, including premium sports and video-on-demand with all popular films and series from pay channels, but also for about five to ten euros per month. music stations and radio channels.
As a rule, customers pay six months or a whole year in advance, but lose their money when the offer is taken offline. In addition to online providers, BREIN also addresses retailers about illegal IPTV offerings. Settlements run into tens of thousands of euros per case. The EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) calculated that more than one million Dutch consumers spend tens of millions on illegal IPTV subscriptions every year. Incidentally, consumers who stream from an illegal source are also infringing.
