Piracy
TV streaming piracy service with 26M yearly visits shut down
Photocall, a TV piracy streaming platform with over 26 million users annually, has ceased operations following a joint investigation by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) and DAZN. The piracy service provided users with unauthorized access to 1,127 TV channels from 60 countries, including live sports content. In total, almost 30% of its visitors […]
American Archive of Public Broadcasting fixes bug exposing restricted media
A vulnerability in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting’s website allowed downloading of protected and private media for years, with the flaw quietly patched this month. GeekFeed was tipped about the flaw by a cybersecurity researcher who asked to remain anonymous, stating that the flaw has been exploited since at least 2021, even after the researcher […]
Man gets over 4 years in prison for selling unreleased movies
A Tennessee court has sentenced a Memphis man who worked for a DVD and Blu-ray manufacturing and distribution company to 57 months in prison for stealing and selling digital copies of unreleased movies. 37-year-old Steven R. Hale was charged in March with selling ripped DVD and Blu-ray discs of movies before their release. Prosecutors stated at the […]
Sports streaming piracy service with 123M yearly visits shut down
Calcio, a large piracy sports streaming platform with more than 120 million visits in the past year, was shut down following a collaborative effort by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) and DAZN. This massive illegal streaming service received more than 123 million visits over the past 12 months across 134 domains, with over […]
Police disrupts Streameast, largest pirated sports streaming network
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) and Egyptian authorities have shut down Streameast, the world’s largest illegal live sports streaming network, and arrested two people allegedly associated with the operation. Streameast, operational since 2018, was a free streaming service supported by advertisements, providing access to HD streams from licensed broadcasters. Streameast reportedly operates 80 […]
Massive IPTV piracy service with 28,000 channels taken offline
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) announced the shutdown of Rare Breed TV, a major illegal IPTV service provider, after reaching a financial settlement with its operators. North Carolina-based Rare Breed TV was one of the world’s largest digital piracy operations, claiming to offer subscribers access to over 28,000 channels and more than 100,000 movies and […]
Operator of Jetflix illegal streaming service gets 7 years in prison
The ringleader of the Jetflicks illegal paid streaming operation, a massive service with tens of thousands of subscribers, was sentenced to seven years in prison. Together with four other accomplices, 42-year-old Kristopher Lee Dallmann of Las Vegas, Nevada, was convicted in June 2024 of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. Dallmann was also found guilty by […]
New Arcane infostealer infects YouTube, Discord users via game cheats
A newly discovered information-stealing malware called Arcane is stealing extensive user data, including VPN account credentials, gaming clients, messaging apps, and information stored in web browsers. According to Kaspersky, the malware has no links or code that overlaps with the Arcane Stealer V, which has been circulating on the dark web for years. The Arcane malware […]
PyPi package with 100K installs pirated music from Deezer for years
A malicious PyPi package named ‘automslc’ has been downloaded over 100,000 times from the Python Package Index since 2019, abusing hard-coded credentials to pirate music from the Deezer streaming service. Deezer is a music streaming service available in 180 countries that offers access to over 90 million tracks, playlists, and podcasts. It is offered via […]
Cracked Garry’s Mod, BeamNG.drive games infect gamers with miners
A large-scale malware campaign dubbed “StaryDobry” has been targeting gamers worldwide with trojanized versions of cracked games such as Garry’s Mod, BeamNG.drive, and Dyson Sphere Program. These titles are top-rated games with hundreds of thousands of ‘overwhelmingly positive’ reviews on Steam, making them good targets for malicious activity. It’s worth noting that a laced Beamng […]