BTB: Blackout! Government Shuts Down Popular NFL Streaming Domains

[CCBoy]

Blackout! Government Shuts Down Popular NFL Streaming Domains
by One.Cool.Customer on Feb 2, 2011 8:00 PM EST in Trolling the Universe


http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/



Security has been alerted to your online viewing habits.


Yesterday evening, BTB member Foyesboys alerted us in his FanShot that a number of popular online video streaming domains have been seized by the U.S. Government in what he described as "the worst news possible (from a sports perspective) for out of state Cowboys fans today".

The U.S. government has seized popular streaming domains such as channelsurfing.net, adthe.net, firstrow.net or ilemi.com. Visit any of these sites and you'll find the logos of the Department Of Justice as well as Homeland Security prominently emblazoned across the now defunct domains.

All of the sites linked to these domains used to broadcast NFL games and other sports programs as well a regular TV programming. Unarguably these sites were operating in what even under the most optimistic of legal interpretations can at best be described as a "gray area". Yet for many NFL fans both in the U.S.and abroad, they were the only affordable way to watch their favorite teams...

 

[TheCount]

lol, these idiots. Yes, wage war on the entire internet. That's a battle you can win.

Hell, according to the NFL Copyright, I can't even legally talk about the game with my friends.

This is really gonna screw overseas fans as well, I remember streaming a game on a trip to Africa.. the game we beat the Saints actually.

 

[Randy White]

say is: good luck with that endevor..

 

[StanleySpadowski]

NFL fans better pray that these sites are shuttered for good.

Directv is paying almost a billion dollars a year for exclusivity of the Sunday Ticket...these thieves cost them millions upon millions and could cause them to rethink the value of their investement when their contract expires.

Without that Sunday Ticket money, Jerry Jones couldn't have built the Cathedral in Arlington.

 

[MarionBarberThe4th]

No one wants to watch a game on a computer if they can afford Sunday Ticker. If they ever really did catch up to these sites for good people will just go to a friends house or a bar.

 

[TwoCentPlain]

I hope they come back before the season. I watched many Cowboy games that weren't on tv on the sites that were seized.

I knew the NFL and Direct TV would come after them. No one needs the NFL Ticket when you can watch the games for free on your computer. Right now, the streams are a little blurry and the screen is small. However, technology is moving so fast that live streams will soon be just as good as your tv on a computer screen.

The NFL and Direct TV have a big, constant fight on their hands. Other sites will pop up. Suing these sites will yield little because the companies have almost no assets. Technology and loopholes are with the live streamers.

 

[marchetta]

Too bad. I loved adthe and channelsurfing. But, good thing it happened during the off-season. By the start of next season, there'll be new sites up to replace them. When will the gov realize that shutting down websites is like the proverbial placing a "finger in the dike."

 

[TheCount]

NFL fans better pray that these sites are shuttered for good.

Directv is paying almost a billion dollars a year for exclusivity of the Sunday Ticket...these thieves cost them millions upon millions and could cause them to rethink the value of their investement when their contract expires.

Without that Sunday Ticket money, Jerry Jones couldn't have built the Cathedral in Arlington.

Yeah right, what is their other option? To not sell Sunday Ticket at all?

To be a thief you actually have to be making some sort of profit off streaming the games, none of these sites make money off anything other than people that might click banner ads. They don't even host the streams, they just gather the links to them in one place. Shutting down the sites doesn't affect the feeds one bit, it just makes them harder to track down.

 

[Randy White]

Too bad. I loved adthe and channelsurfing. But, good thing it happened during the off-season. By the start of next season, there'll be new sites up to replace them. When will the gov realize that shutting down websites is like the proverbial placing a "finger in the dike."

and that's being generous... but they have to do what they have to do.. even if it's like trying to eliminate mosquitos with chopsticks..

At least Miyagi was trained and he was trying to catch a fly, which is bigger than an mosquito.

 

[Duane]

There will be new sites pop up before the season starts and I can give DirecTV a big middle finger for trying to charge $300 for the two games I miss a season on local TV.