A Score Against Sports-Streaming Websites

Just days before Super Bowl XLV, the feds have shut down the Web addresses of 10 websites accused of providing live streaming of televised sporting and pay-per-view events.

The seized sites, which were not streaming contently directly but were providing links to illegal live streams, are, according to Courthouse News Service: Atdhe.net, ChannelSurfing.net, HQ-Streams.com, HQ-Streams.net, FireStrow.net, Ilemi.com, Iilemi.com, Iilemii.com, Rojadirecta.org and Rojadirecta.com. The U.S. Attorney’s office of the Southern District of New York, working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized the sites Tuesday, and the affidavit for the seizures was unsealed Wednesday.

Prosecutors say that the sites were not only distributing pirated content illegally, but also effectively stealing revenues away from the professional sports leagues, such as the National Football League, National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League, thereby driving up the prices of event tickets and pay-per-view fees.

The sites likely held appeal to the growing number of viewers who watch TV on their computers and mobile devices. Such viewers have been troubling to professional sports organizations, which copyright their content, including audio, video, text, and images and restrict others from using it without prior approval.

But the government might have its hands full with the websites accused of streaming the content. One site, Adthme.net, is back up and running at a new address and is asking fans to do a little bit of word-of-mouth advertising to help boost traffic. “Please bookmark and save our new address www.ATDHE.me and help us spread the word,” the site says.

On a discussion board of DemocraticUnderground.com, sports fans were perturbed, with one commenter comparing the shuttered sites to the crackdown on social-media usage in the early days of the uprising in Egypt.

“Good practice run for shutting down a larger popular uprising? First we’ll try the sports sites kill switch,” the user wrote.

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