Premier League goes to war on internet pirates

[JamesTheYiddo]

The Premier League is planning an aggressive campaign to protect its intellectual property rights in an attempt to clamp down on rogue websites that show football matches for nothing and pub landlords who broadcast foreign feeds, amid fears that they could damage its income from broadcasting rights.

Having recently recorded a surge in the number of people watching via websites that transmit live pictures from overseas broadcasters or allow users to share vision using "peer-to-peer" video sites, the league is determined to push the issue up the political agenda.


Premier League lawyers want the culture secretary, Andy Burnham, and the business secretary, Lord Mandelson, to crack down on copyright infringement by making internet service providers responsible for the actions of their subscribers, and appoint an "IP tsar" to coordinate action across government.


Having been vigilant for years against wholesale piracy the league's lawyers have recently taken a high-profile lobbying role in the UK, Europe and internationally. The league has been liaising with sporting authorities around the world, media owners and other affected parties to highlight the need for urgent action and more consistent enforcement.


The chief executive, Richard Scudamore, last week told the all-party IP group of MPs that the government needed to take a harder line and do more to implement the recommendations in a report on copyright by Andrew Gowers. Stephen Carter, the communications minister, is due to unveil a draft report on the future of Digital Britain next week.


"The ISPs have got to take more responsibility," said a Premier League lawyer. "We have sent over 700 cease-and-desist letters and had an 87% success rate this season. [But] one of our problems is that often the sites reregister a domain name, using false names and addresses, and sign up with an ISP in a less protected country – 60% of peer-to-peer activity has been coming out of China. ISPs have to take on a stronger role and have a better enforcement policy."


The league said that when officials from countries traditionally seen as "safe harbours", such as China, were confronted about piracy, they typically asked why more was not being done by the UK government or within Europe.


Already millions of computer users across the world watch matches live without paying a subscription fee. The Premier League fears that the mainstream use of broadband and the increased popularity of watching video online make widespread piracy a very real prospect, which could seriously reduce the amount broadcasters are prepared to pay.


Sporting authorities are terrified of following the path of the music industry, which saw its business model collapse after it failed to combat digital piracy. The league made £625m from its overseas rights deals last time around and a total of £2.7bn overall, and is banking on another increase after 2010 to compensate for a potential dip in domestic income.


The Premier League recently led a coalition of 27 sporting bodies to prepare a background report for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development at the behest of the G8. The report said unauthorised live streams of some sporting events were already being watched by more than one million people.


Websites that offer access to live unauthorised coverage from PCs, usually sourced from overseas broadcasters in the Far East or around the world, have been popular with a small minority of web users unwilling to pay for a TV subscription for some time.


Poor quality pictures and audio, combined with the determination required to track them down, previously made them a niche pursuit. But with feeds now of a higher quality and easier to access there are fears that more and more cash-strapped fans will turn to them.


And with many of the illicit feeds originating from China and elsewhere around the world, the Premier League is reliant on specialist internet firms to track them down and persuade internet service providers to punish individuals.


Late last year, the Premier League threatened action against the US website, Justin.tv, which allows its users to share and stream footage from all over the world. It has also launched a high-profile class action against YouTube, which is expected to be heard in the US later this year. The original class action, launched in 2007, was recently superseded by a second complaint at the end of last year.


Scudamore has been bullish about the prospect of the value of its media deals holding up despite the global economic slump that has affected media companies and their advertisers, because live Premier League crucial is considered so crucial to their business models.


Major US sporting bodies are also taking the prospect of revenue loss from illicit online viewing seriously. Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association have all taken steps to stem the rising tide of online piracy. MLB employees three people full-time to monitor illegal broadcasts and last year recorded 5,000 separate incidents.

Guardian.co.uk

:violin:
​

 

[bill]

This will be a laugh to watch the Permier league take on the might of the peer-2-peer broadcasting junkies.

The music industry have failed and so too will the Premier league.

 

[Rumbaldo]

ironic that in their greedy attempts to make as much money out of the asian market as possible it now seems the asians are causing them to loose money in the english market wooohahaha.

 

[SlickMongoose]

Sporting authorities are terrified of following the path of the music industry, which saw its business model collapse after it failed to combat digital piracy.

And yet they're making the same mistakes.... They need to embrace the internet and offer more games legally.

 

[punky]

Bastards. Fucking bastards.

That is all.

 

[CosmicHotspur]

I'm with you on this one Punky so thanks for swearing on my behalf on this occasion or the air here would have been blue when I read that. I can't afford Sky or Setanta and, anyway, not all of our matches are even relayed on those channels so I rely on the net to watch our games.

As with the free music and film sites, I hope that as soon as they wipe a site out, it will start up again and even more new ones will pop up.

If my ISP starts to block them, I'd have to consider changing to one that doesn't.

 

[punky]

I can't afford Sky or Setanta and, anyway, not all of our matches are even relayed on those channels so I rely on the net to watch our games.

I already pay for Sky and Setanta. I would also pay a reasonable yearly fee to watch all Spurs games. However the EPL don't even give me the chance, that's what disgusts me. They give me the chance to watch West Brom vs Bolton, or nothing at all. They give all the TV rights away to China, and force the fans in the UK, that keep these clubs in business, to listen to the radio, no matter how much they want to pay. Then they are annoyed with our fans look for ways around this? I've been screaming for years they need to offer a season tick. Say £60/year to show all games live for a particular club. With satellite and cable nowadays, its easily possible.

I'm not completely familiar with the US NFL system, but I believe all local matches are shown live, free of charge. Imagine that. And they still fill their stadiums.

 

[milkman]

ironic that in their greedy attempts to make as much money out of the asian market as possible it now seems the asians are causing them to loose money in the english market wooohahaha.

So so true! :rofl:

 

[Jamturk]

Ah capitalism at its best.
As long as you have 1 man trying to fleece another the world will crumble

 

[Teddy10]

I already pay for Sky and Setanta. I would also pay a reasonable yearly fee to watch all Spurs games. However the EPL don't even give me the chance, that's what disgusts me. They give me the chance to watch West Brom vs Bolton, or nothing at all. They give all the TV rights away to China, and force the fans in the UK, that keep these clubs in business, to listen to the radio, no matter how much they want to pay. Then they are annoyed with our fans look for ways around this? I've been screaming for years they need to offer a season tick. Say £60/year to show all games live for a particular club. With satellite and cable nowadays, its easily possible.

I'm not completely familiar with the US NFL system, but I believe all local matches are shown live, free of charge. Imagine that. And they still fill their stadiums.

It's a nice idea punky but surely £60 per year for all 38 EPL games (cups as well?) is a little on the cheap side! I would have no hesitation in paying a decent annual fee if I could watch all THFC games on the net (with a decent stream of course) I very much doubt it will ever happen though, TV will probably always rule.

 

[JamesTheYiddo]

Because of pending legal proceedings, Myp2p has removed all links in the following competions:
Elitserien - SM-Liga - NHL - Swedish Allsvenskan - Italian Serie A - English Premier
League - Dutch Eredivisie.
Once a judgment has been given, we will notify you of the outcome.
​

Wankers! :shake:

 

[nightgoat]

That's what I thought...

Quite frankly, if a Spurs game is on Sky or ITV, given the choice between watching it on TV or an interrupted, blocky, glitchy stream with foreign commentary so that I have to put radio commentary on that's 20 seconds out of sync, then it's quite obvious which I'm going to choose...

If it's not on Sky, then I don't have that choice... But then whether or not I watch a game on the internet doesn't take away the fact that my Sky subscription has already been paid...

 

[Koba]

I'm not completely familiar with the US NFL system, but I believe all local matches are shown live, free of charge. Imagine that. And they still fill their stadiums.

Local stations do usually show their local team, but that doesn't solve the problem of people who don't live where their team play.
BUT I'm pretty sure that with NFL Game Pass or whatever they call it, you get a pretty big choice of games in HD over the net if you pay a subscription. I think this would be the best solution, being able to pay to watch a certain teams matches, as someone has already said. [Edit: that was also you!]
You do still get quite a demand for streams tho

 

[punky]

I noticed all the links gone from MyP2P. Going to be harder to find a link now.

I'm almost tempted to write the FA a letter and see the reasons as to why they are putting their own profits above the fans that keep their league in business. The bastards.

 

[CosmicHotspur]

I noticed last night that MyP2P didn't have any Premiership games so what you've posted, James, now makes perfect sense.

The streams I did find last night were bad to say the least (good enough to see the goals and how magnificent Modric was though!) and I hope that isn't indicative of future transmissions.

I'm clinging to the other links in my Favourites folder with fingers and everything else crossed that they won't do the same. I think it will mean doing regular searches to find new links and if they have to be with foreign commentaries, so be it - I always have SkySports News on anyway to keep up with the action and scores or can listen to Radio 5 or Radio London for English commentary. This really is such bad news.

 

[dirtydave]

Everybody in here is saying exactly what I intended to say.

Give us what we want and dont monopolise the schedule. The broadcasters who choose not to show the games we all could easily see are the ones who should be punished!

 

[JamesTheYiddo]

More;

Dear visitors,

Because of pending legal proceedings concerning several competitions we have to close the forum untill around the end of this week. We regret we have to do this but it's necessary right now.

We will be back, stay with us and support us!

​

http://www.myp2pforum.eu/

 

[$hoguN]

its greed from the premier league just like it was greed from the music industry that caused so many people to download... This whole bollocks where we cant have all games live on a multiscreen just like football first is ridiculous, consider that with the fact the premier league have split their rights between Sentanta and Sky both which require subscriptions you can see why people choose to watch via p2p.

 

[AllSeeingEye]

So the Premier league make £2.7bn a year on broadcasting and 5000 people got caught broadcasting it for free, so what?

The Prem needs to get it's house in order, I think it's a joke that we can't watch every Tottenham game in England - the home of football. Since I have moved out here to Norway I have seen more live games than I would have in London - and the excuse I am hearing is that if the match was on telly then no-one would go to the ground. What utter bollocks.

What harm to it's income did 5000 people do exactly? Do they think the people that watch it online are really harming the sport? Again, utter bollocks.

Football needs to get it's head out of it's arse.

 

[Bonjour]

Our EPL coverage in awful.

In other countries you can choose which of all the day's fixtures you'd like to watch live.