Two of the most prominent pirated streaming sites, MethStreams and the most recent iteration of CrackStrea,ms were taken offline on Monday. This marks the latest instance of unlawful streaming services going dark in response to a coordinated effort by leagues, media companies, regulators, and law enforcement.

Last month, ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter shared a Thursday Night Football game clip from the unlawful streaming site MethStreams, which garnered some mainstream attention. A source informed Front Office Sports that the film, which featured a MethSteams watermark, was extracted from an alternative Twitter account and that Schefter was not viewing the Amazon game on MethStreams.

On Monday, Schefter responded to the news of MethStreams’ demise with a neutral face emoji in jest.

It is unclear as to why the pirating sites have gone silent. However, the Motion Picture Association-backed Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment assisted in dismantling one of the world’s largest live sports piracy organizations earlier this month.

In a press release, the organization announced that it had successfully requested that the administrators of a Vietnam-based ring, responsible for 812 million visits in 2024, transfer dozens of domains to ACE.

CrackStreams’ previous domain was among the 138 domains forcibly removed.

𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: Popular sport streaming sites Methstreams and Crackstreams have been taken down and are no longer in use.

Millions of sports fans will be impacted by this. pic.twitter.com/oRmQ3Vl0VH

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 30, 2024

Motion Picture Association executive Larissa Knapp announced the downing of the Vietnam-based sites, stating, “ACE’s live sports members face a unique threat when it comes to digital piracy, as live sports broadcasts lose substantial commercial value once the game ends.”

The takedown “serves as a warning to piracy operators worldwide, including those involved in live sports piracy, that ACE will identify and terminate their illegal operations.”

Faster Illegal Streaming Takedowns

In a joint letter to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last year, the NFL, NBA, and UFC stated that illegal broadcasts were causing the global sports industry to lose “up to $28 billion in additional potential annual revenue.”

When illicit streams emerged in the early 2000s, pay-per-view events were the primary targets. However, the emergence of pirated sites worldwide was largely due to the increased cord-cutting in recent years and the availability of sports content on streaming services such as ESPN+, Peacock, and other paid services.

In addition, they developed an illegal bundle that allows subscribers to access thousands of entertainment channels and live sports content for a nominal monthly charge through pirated paid websites.

Although end users in the United States violate the law by viewing illicit streams, investigators and prosecutors prioritize the individuals responsible for those streams.

In June, a federal jury in Las Vegas convicted five men of operating a paid piracy streaming site. In November, federal prosecutors in New York indicted two brothers for allegedly earning over $7 million operating 247TVStream, another paid pirate service.

February is the targeted date for the sentencing of the Las Vegas case.

It is not immediately apparent whether ACE was involved in the shutdown of MethStreams and CrackStreams, so contacting ACE was not an immediate process.

ACE’s Dec. 19 termination announcement included crackstreams.dev as one of the sites. On the same day, the individual reported on Discord that another CrackStreams domain had been “locked down by our domain provider.” This individual is purportedly responsible for MethStreams and CrackStreams.

CrackStreams identified itself as a “free live sports streaming website” that provided users with stolen sports streaming content.

The site’s domain was altered to crackstreams.in, as is frequently the case with piracy sites. On Monday, the same Discord user named “methstreams” announced they were “taking a break from live streaming.” Methstreams did not respond to a Discord direct message.

Tucows, the world’s second-largest domain registrar, registered methstreams.com and crackstreams.in. A representative from Tucows informed FOS that the company had not taken any action against either domain.

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(VOR News) – The millions of small businesses who depend on the social media app TikTok for short videos to help them expand their operations would be significantly impacted. These businesses would be greatly impacted if TikTok were to be banned.

Desiree Hill, the owner of Crown’s Corner Mechanic in Conyers, Georgia, took the initiative to launch her own business after working as a mobile mechanic in the past. She was able to start a brick and mortar business with five employees and 9,000 square feet eighteen months ago.

This was made possible by her growing popularity, which enabled her to publish videos of her work on TikTok and spread the word about it. “Every day, I receive at least two to three customers who have seen me on TikTok, watched my videos, and want to become a customer,” she informed the news crew.

“I also get customers who have seen me on TikTok.”

Despite TikTok’s relatively recent launch in 2016, small business owners utilize the site in a multitude of ways. These include expanding their clientele, promoting and marketing their brand, and selling goods directly from the internet.

Small businesses that use TikTok would lose more than $1 billion in income in a single month if the ban were to be enforced, according to estimates provided by the company itself.

The Justice Department has ordered ByteDance, the Chinese app’s parent company, to sell TikTok by January 19 or risk the app being blocked in the US government. Security issues with the app were the reason for the order. In January, the Supreme Court will meet to consider the matter and render a ruling.

A plea to postpone the case has been filed with the Supreme Court by Donald Trump, the incoming president who will take office on January 20.

Small businesses will need to move their clientele to other platforms in order to continue operating if a ban is implemented. Other options to think about are YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and Snapchat Shorts. The likelihood that brands already have a presence there is high, which is a really positive development.

However, compared to other social networking sites, it can be more challenging to communicate with teenagers who have made TikTok their main social networking tool.

Another method is to build an extensive database of clients who have voluntarily provided their contact details, including phone numbers and email addresses. This enables business owners to communicate directly with their clients and offer them promotional materials and marketing messages.

TikTok will reach more people than any other website.

In contrast to the preceding assertion, Hill makes this one. She went on to say that even though she is active on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, it is not the same as being on Facebook. This, she admitted, is the case.

She expressed her concern with the following statement: “I am worried because there is no preparation for this.” I would either lose a sizable portion of my business or my future growth potential if I were to lose TikTok. For me, one of these outcomes would be catastrophic.

This may be specifically attributed to the significant influence TikTok has on my clientele and how I interact with prospective clients.

Mommy and I both: Crystal Lister is the owner and operator of The Listers, a business with its main office located in Cypress, Texas. The organization offers interactive seminars that focus on learning STEM subjects.

However, her report claims that TikTok is more convenient. She is also working on moving the videos to YouTube and the previews on Instagram Reels so that people may find YouTube.

“It is going to be a challenge because we are losing kind of all the functionality you want,” she claimed when asked about the possible consequences of TikTok’s ban. The capacity to produce movies and spread the word via social media are two examples of this specific feature. We will therefore need to use a large number of additional websites in order to complement what TikTok accomplished on a single platform.

SOURCE: AP

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Apple Joins Google’s Antitrust Trial After an Agreement on Search Engines.

(VOR News) – Apple has submitted a request to participate in the antitrust trial that is expected to take place in the United States during this time period.

This request comes in light of the fact that the trial against Google that is set to take place in the United States is rapidly approaching. The trial is expected to take place in the United States of America, according to current expectations.

The operations of Google that involve the conduct of online searches will be presented as the subject of examination during the trial that is now taking place.

According to Apple’s frame of thought, the company cannot rely entirely on Google to maintain revenue-sharing arrangements that bring in billions of dollars for Apple and its business each year. These arrangements entail Apple and Google sharing money.

Apple needs these alliances to survive.

At this time, Google is the primary search engine that is incorporated into the Safari web browser that is provided by Apple. This is due to the fact that these agreements have been reached, and as a consequence, the Safari web browser is now compatible with Google.

According to the documents that were presented to the court in Washington on Monday, Apple has made it abundantly clear that it does not intend to establish its own search engine in order to compete with Google. This is consistent with the materials that were filed.

A notation of this fact was included in the documents themselves. Regardless of whether or not these payments continue to be provided, the fact that this remark was made regardless of whether or not they continue to be delivered makes it immaterial whether or not they continue to be provided.

The arrangement that Apple has with Google is directly responsible for the fact that it is projected that Apple will have received twenty billion dollars by the time the year 2022 comes to a close. It is a direct consequence of the arrangement that has come about.

Apple has indicated that it intends to carry out its desire to have a trial in the month of April, and it has claimed that it intends to accomplish this by inviting witnesses to testify during the hearing.

Apple said it would have a trial in April.

According to Apple’s announcement, the company intends to comply with the request. The conditions are anticipated to be the determining factor in determining the site of the trial.

Furthermore, this trial is part of the historic lawsuit the Department of Justice is running against Google. These are some additional things of interest to give thought to.

This case aims to show that the required changes are ones that Google must do if it is to reach the objective of restoring competition in the market for internet search. Right now, the trial is in progress; this is the moment we live in.

The corporation is anticipated to opt for the sale of its Chrome browser and potentially its Android operating system as part of these initiatives. This is a potentiality that persists. It is unequivocal that all of this lies within the realm of possibility. A possibility exists that something will occur.

Apple’s legal counsel claimed Google no longer represented Apple’s interests:

“Google must now defend itself against a broad effort to break up its business units.” This statement was made in response to the fact that Apple’s legal counsel had published the statement.

Regarding the statement that was published by Apple, this remark was made in conformity with the statement. It is extremely probable that the trial will have significant repercussions for the manner in which clients acquire information online, and there is a strong likelihood that these effects will be severe.

The trial is expected to take place in the near future. Considerable influence is anticipated to be brought about by the trial.

Consequently, as a result of this, Google has requested that the default agreements it has with mobile device manufacturers, browser developers, and wireless carriers be opened up to the public. On the other hand, the organization has shown no indication that it intends to terminate the revenue-sharing arrangements that it currently has in place.

SOURCE: TN

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On December 24, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Will Make Its Closest Approach To The Sun.