Working with the Economic Crime Suppression Division of the Royal Thai Police, Thailand’s leading pay-tv provider, TrueVisions and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) shut down the piracy streaming site Uhuseries.com and all domains associated with it. Also closed down was the Piracy-as-a-Service (PaaS) website Iamtheme.com. Both were operated from Thailand.
Uhuseries was a network of illegal sites, whose library of U.S. and international TV shows and movies attracted an average of 1.3 million visitors per month. Most traffic originated in Thailand, the US and UK.
Seven associated streaming sites, including owlserieshd.com, nunghub.com and 14 back-end domains were also shut down. Back-end domain aplayer.xyz hosted over 78,000 movies and TV shows.
The domains now redirect to ACE’s “Watch Legally” landing page.
Piracy-as-a-Service
Also closed down was the Piracy-as-a-Service (PaaS) website Iamtheme.com. According to ACE, iamtheme.com had been in operation since 2020 and had an average of 245,000 visits per month. The site functioned as a PaaS platform, which provided third-party websites with access to a sizable collection of U.S. and international films.
The platform also provided website development services and ready-made movie streaming and live sports websites that were instantly usable. The 27 piracy streaming sites that relied on Iamtheme.com for content and infrastructure are no longer operational.
“Piracy-as-a-Service” is something of a catch-all designation for entities that aggregate stolen content, produce Web sites and apps, and offer custom development services to other pirates on a turnkey basis. This ‘one stop shop’ approach reduces the need for end-user-facing pirates to acquire the skills, resources and content needed on their own; giving them a faster path to market.
Pirate apps not only present a user experience, but also embody techniques to mine for user data, run stolen advertising (which brings ad revenue from legitimate advertisers to the pirate), and place malware onto user devices.
Further reading
ACE and Truevisions shut down two notorious piracy sites in Thailand. Press release. January 18, 2024. Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE)
Why it matters
“Thailand has the capability to produce and distribute world class local content, but we must protect content rights if the benefits are to be realized by the creative economy and the country as a whole,” said Sompan Charumilinda, Executive Vice Chairman of TrueVisions.
TrueVisions is Thailand’s leading pay-TV provider, offering world-class content and a full range of services through both traditional linear and OTT streaming platforms. TrueVisions NOW streaming service offers live football from eight different leagues and 9 cups, a total of more than 1,500 matches.
“Piracy sites such as Uhuseries.com and Iamtheme.com put consumers at risk of malware, undermine investment in the Thai content industry, and reduce tax contributions to the local government,” added Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection at the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE.
“This enforcement action is a win-win for all and sends a strong message to illegal operators that they will face serious consequences,” he said.
