ACE announced that it has shut down two major pirate download sites, Openload and Streamango; which fed content to “72% of the top 50 illegal video streaming and linking sites in the world.”
The shutdown of these sites has in turn driven increased traffic on other piracy sites by people looking for content that was no longer available through sites that were fed by OpenLoad and StreamGo.
Streamango operated more than 1,000 servers in Romania, France and Germany and “generated more traffic than … Hulu, HBO Go, Sky, and the Web sites for CBS News and NBC News.” According to Deadline, ACE had pursued a civil case through a German court, which was settled out of court. Details have not been made public.
Why it matters
ACE has been in the news in recent weeks, announcing industry partnerships, anti-piracy initiatives and wins; some of which have likely been in progress since ACE’s establishment in 2015. By nature, piracy and anti-piracy both happen largely in the dark, lest they tip off one anothers’ opponents. The industry forces behind ACE are well resourced and highly impacted both by the losses and the wins. We can expect more progress from them and their members in the future.
