"End Live Piracy Now" campaign demands swift action against illegal streaming in Europe

[Alfonso Maruccia]

A hot potato: End Live Piracy Now is a new initiative against unlicensed streaming of live sports and events. More than 100 organizations want the EU to "end piracy" for good, with new laws that would shut pirate servers off even before a live show comes to an end. Which is easier said than done.

Unlicensed streaming of live sports and events is a threat to Europe's economy and culture heritage, or so this is what a new initiative is stating in the attempt to push EU authorities towards a swift and harsher action against pirates. The stakes are higher than ever, the number of organizations involved in the initiative is unprecedented and the promoters are demanding a censorship power that doesn't exist within Europe's law -- yet.

The new anti-piracy campaign is called End Live Piracy Now, and it can count on more than 100 organizations which signed a call to action to protect creativity, sports and culture in Europe.

The coalition includes the usual suspects of copyright enforcement like MPA, Disney, and other anti-piracy groups, plus many European sports leagues (UEFA, Premiere League, LaLiga, Serie A etc.) and live events organizations such as Danish Ensembles, Orchestras and Opera Institutions, London Marathon, Cricket Australia, Ryder Cup and many others.

The End Live Piracy Now (ELPN) initiative is calling on the European Union to address the issue of piracy in general, and live content piracy in particular. "Piracy has and continues to drain Europe's creative and cultural ecosystems, sports and live performance sectors", the rightsholders say, while depriving workers and industries from "billions in annual revenues". Live piracy is undermining the sustainability of what is an essential part of the social and economic fabric of Europe, the End Live Piracy Now initiative states.

What should the Old Continent do to tackle this seemingly critical issue as envisioned by the ELPN supporters? The coalition wants for the European Commission -- the executive power of the European Union – to design a new and effective legislative tool, a law capable of guaranteeing that notified illegal contents are taken down right away and blocked even before the live (pirated) event comes to an end.

Only a legislative tool can have a true impact against a problem of this magnitude, the coalition says, with a European-wide regulation that could provide an appropriate answer to the rampant issue of live sports and events piracy.

The same kind of piracy, the ELPN signers say, which is offering a mean to launder gains from illegal activities as well. An idea that sounds strange to say the least, as unlicensed (and thus illegal) streaming would offer very little benefits to any alleged money laundering operation.

Nevertheless, the ELPN campaign has been organized by Pearle (Performing Arts Employers Associations League Europe) together with sport conglomerates and broadcasters, with a pledge that could be signed until October 1. Unlike many recent anti-piracy initiatives, which were directed against end users, the new campaign seems to be tailored for intermediaries that exploit ambiguities in the current law to stream unlicensed contents to consumers.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/96260-end-live-piracy-now-campaign-demands-swift-action.html

 

[DSirius]

I am waiting for a better initiative to end spam ads and comercial with volume 2 or 3 times louder than users set their media devices, and after that we can talk about "piracy".
Nowadays it became awful to watch any media or event and almost half of it is flodded with garbage ads and comercials. And they dare to ask money for this low quality content? No wonder that piracy is a solution for some, at least to get rid off of all those ads and commercials which brake the content.
Besides this type of old traditional media experienced a downfall and because other form of content replace them more succesful nowadays, like videogames or interactive streaming, where public can get involved or interact with content creators, not just watch and get any garbage traditional media "offered".

 

[kira setsu]

I am waiting for a better initiative to end spam ads and comercial with volume 2 or 3 times louder than users set their media devices, and after that we can talk about "piracy".
Nowadays it became awful to watch any media or event and almost half of it is flodded with garbage ads and comercials. And they dare to ask money for this low quality content? No wonder that piracy is a solution for some, at least to get rid off of all those ads and commercials which brake the content.
Besides this type of old traditional media experienced a downfall and because other form of content replace them more succesful nowadays, like videogames or interactive streaming, where public can get involved or interact with content creators, not just watch and get any garbage traditional media "offered".

its true, I've seen pirate streams where the commercials and ads dont even work so you end up with an annoyance free viewing.

 

[erickmendes]

1. They want better laws to keep they copyrights protected... They just wraping it in a beautiful talk... Welll... These organization have the right to ask for better copyright laws, but don't try to misguide the public to buy into this BS talk about protecting "cultural heritage"... Yeah sure...

2. I do believe art and content in general should be public, but that's decision the creator need to make, be it a person or a organization, need to decide... And if we get it's content without permission, that's "piracy", I can agree on that. I still advocate for free content.

 

[DSirius]

1. They want better laws to keep they copyrights protected... They just wraping it in a beautiful talk... Welll... These organization have the right to ask for better copyright laws, but don't try to misguide the public to buy into this BS talk about protecting "cultural heritage"... Yeah sure...

2. I do believe art and content in general should be public, but that's decision the creator need to make, be it a person or a organization, need to decide... And if we get it's content without permission, that's "piracy", I can agree on that. I still advocate for free content.

If creators would have control of their creation distribution, the content will be way better priced and would reflect the public preferences. Public will pay and consume what they really like and not what PR with huge funds manipulate the public to "like". In fact many new content creators and artists are doing this, bypassing big media publishers and address directly to the public. The exposure is not so big, but at least the media consumers are more closed and true to the value of the content.

 

[kiwigraeme]

If your product is good enough - then people will buy it
If you follow the EPL , Bundesliga etc - do you want to leave it to chance - especially as they are ,mostly streaming pirate services and not on demand?
Then you have the problem of free to air in a country - paid content in another - so a simple vpn will suffice .
Plus I believe you can legally stream a cheaper service from another country where the subscription is a fraction of the cost +vpn ( it's been tested in court I believe )

I will occasionally watch some event on an excellent steam service - I get no adverts , pop ups - as I don't allow them -They even have some like a discord comment channel - I never use it .
But the point is I pay good money to Sky to see rugby - these casual things I watch - I would never pay .
In Europe definitely pre-covid they had great sports bars - so even though I don't follow say football - a great place to go soak up atmosphere and support the country you are now in .

 

[ZedRM]

And who still thinks the UK leaving the EU is a bad idea?

 

[Hodor]

How about ending programs which insert unnecessary trailers and announcements, then commercials, then again trailers and announcements (often the same trailers are repeated twice inside the same commercial block)?

I'm paying for 24 hours of programming, but thanks to unnecessarily long trailers, commercials, or even warnings, I'm only getting 12 hours of programming. They aren't even filling the gaps with reruns. Nope. Just trailers and announcements for other shows (which again contain trailers and announcements for those previous shows).

On the surface it looks like there's contents, but there's 50% of filler to water down the content. That way they only purchase 12 hours of programming, dilute it and sell it to us as the real thing. Drug dealers may sue them for copyright infringement.

 

[DSirius]

If your product is good enough - then people will buy it
If you follow the EPL , Bundesliga etc - do you want to leave it to chance - especially as they are ,mostly streaming pirate services and not on demand?
Then you have the problem of free to air in a country - paid content in another - so a simple vpn will suffice .
Plus I believe you can legally stream a cheaper service from another country where the subscription is a fraction of the cost +vpn ( it's been tested in court I believe )

I will occasionally watch some event on an excellent steam service - I get no adverts , pop ups - as I don't allow them -They even have some like a discord comment channel - I never use it .
But the point is I pay good money to Sky to see rugby - these casual things I watch - I would never pay .
In Europe definitely pre-covid they had great sports bars - so even though I don't follow say football - a great place to go soak up atmosphere and support the country you are now in .

I like rugby too, also I greatly value and respect rugby player reaction to faults comparing to football players fake, whinning counterparts.

 

[m3tavision]

U mean soccer players..?

 

[DSirius]

U mean soccer players..?

Yes, football and soccer players too, I suppose in USA are the same "rules" of whining while faking penalty .

 

[George Keech]

And who still thinks the UK leaving the EU is a bad idea?

Lots and lots of people, probably more than half. Apart from the economic turmoil. We have a lack of worker for health and social care (many cam from EU) If your not bothered about that how about the Gov wanting to pull out of the Europe human rights agreement, jeopardize peace in Ireland and the totalitarian policies of making it illegal to protest if the home secretary dosnt like it.

Would rather have rich lobbies complaining about piracy thank you.

 

[tellmewhy]

So if the parliamentarians who represent millions of citizens do not vote the text of the law written by the insignificant companies of few thousand people, are they going to leave the European market? Are the stakes so high?

And it's not "piracy", it's copyright infringement. Copyright it's a gray area, it's about freedom of expression not about ownership.

 

[dangh]

And who still thinks the UK leaving the EU is a bad idea?

Most of the UK citizens... and believe me, 'piracy' is the smallest of the issues.
Already UK internet law is much stricter than EU one. Wanna watch "pr0n"? sure, your ID please...

 

[Strontium]

I like how, in Europe, they are called "organizations". But, in the US, they are called "evil, greedy, corporations".

 

[Xallisto]

The ones that took the beloved sports of the people and f****** them over with paywalls to make themselves fat billions are pissed off that a small few know how to f*** them over in return.

Can't say I feel all that sorry for them.

 

[Phyrino]

The ones that took the beloved sports of the people and f****** them over with paywalls to make themselves fat billions are pissed off that a small few know how to f*** them over in return.

Can't say I feel all that sorry for them.

Agreed.
They lost the argument when they bought those licenses.
Especially the Olympics.
During those I always watch pirated even for those events that are on free channels.

 

[Avro Arrow]

You know, when the sick, poor and homeless are taken care of, THEN we can worry about the "terrible ordeals" that the rich must go through. It's only the rich who care about these things anyway.

Until then...

 

[m3tavision]

Thing is "poor people" get a vote too... they are just ignorant of political disinformation and believe mainstream media..

 

[Greggs]

And who still thinks the UK leaving the EU is a bad idea?

This is a stupid proposal AND Brexit was a bad idea for the UK & EU. Both can be true at the same time.

 

[DSirius]

This is a stupid proposal AND Brexit was a bad idea for the UK & EU. Both can be true at the same time.

Well, after 2 years we can easily distinguishes who really is the stupid here.
UK chose referendum tool to exit EU, but suddenly, they do not like referendum tool anymore when Scotland voted to exit UK. Similar situation, double standards, Orwellian double thinking. Same for EU "govern" from Bruxxells. They used referendum to bring states into EU, but do not like anymore any referendum which involve EU states voting to ratify the new EU imposing treaties.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Yes, football and soccer players too, I suppose in USA are the same "rules" of whining while faking penalty .

Well, you can't blame soccer players for that. After all, the sport did evolve from Olympic Diving, eh?

I like how, in Europe, they are called "organizations". But, in the US, they are called "evil, greedy, corporations".

Then you must be an American because I know for a fact that the term "evil, greedy corporations" originally came from the UK. Americans are far more willing to worship wealth than Europeans. Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton would never have gained traction in Europe but the Americans can't get enough of them.

 

[DSirius]

Well, you can't blame soccer players for that. After all, the sport did evolve from Olympic Diving, eh?

Then you must be an American because I know for a fact that the term "evil, greedy corporations" originally came from the UK. Americans are far more willing to worship wealth than Europeans. Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton would never have gained traction in Europe but the Americans can't get enough of them.

True, and I may add that there is an important difference between wealth and greed in bussines. Wealth is good and can be shared, enjoyed with everybody. Greed on the contrary is built on the expense of others wealth and is not a viable solution for society. And unfortunately US is praising greed and corporations even worship it. A lot of people are quoting "greed is good", which is from that "Wolf of Wall street" movie? And, if I quote Yoda: "They have much to learn" about power of discrimination and the dark side ways.

 

[Avro Arrow]

True, and I may add that there is an important difference between wealth and greed in bussines. Wealth is good and can be shared, enjoyed with everybody. Greed on the contrary is built on the expense of others wealth and is not a viable solution for society. And unfortunately US is praising greed and corporations even worship it. A lot of people are quoting "greed is good", which is from that "Wolf of Wall street" movie? And, if I quote Yoda: "They have much to learn" about power of discrimination or the dark side ways.

The problem is that neo-liberal corporate capitalism demands that a corporation increase its profits year-over-year regardless of how much it made. It's called "infinite growth in a finite market" and is the stupidest idea that I've ever heard of in business.

 

[DSirius]

The problem is that neo-liberal corporate capitalism demands that a corporation increase its profits year-over-year regardless of how much it made. It's called "infinite growth in a finite market" and is the stupidest idea that I've ever heard of in business.

True, you really made an accurate radiography of this model