The fight against online piracy continues as the Anti-piracy coalition ACE launches a new wave of DMCA subpoenas. This latest effort targets several apps and sites, including the notorious piracy streaming service MagisTV and Zoroxtv.to, the successor of the recently suspended Zorox.to.
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) stands as the world’s most active anti-piracy coalition, with a global reach and a strong presence in the fight against online piracy.
Partnering closely with the MPA (Motion Picture Association), ACE regularly obtains DMCA subpoenas to identify and pursue the operators of popular piracy sites and services.
MPA/ACE Subpoenas Identify Piracy Targets
This week, a fresh series of subpoenas has emerged, targeting Cloudflare and the Tonic domain registry. These subpoenas, though common, shed light on the current anti-piracy priorities.
Among the targets are some familiar names. Just recently, we reported on the piracy streaming app MagisTV, which is under fire in Ecuador. This same app is now listed in the latest DMCA subpoena applications.
The subpoenas request information on two ‘MagisTV’ apps and their associated sites, along with other piracy apps such as ‘TVExpress,’ ‘My Family Cinema,’ and ‘Brasil TV’. Also included are (sports) streaming services like cccambox.com and multicanais.cl.
MagisTV is no newcomer to the piracy scene; both MPA and ACE have been monitoring the service for some time. In fact, the MPA nominated it for the USTR’s annual list of notorious piracy markets for the past two years.
“MagisTV has been in operation since approximately 2019, significantly longer than its peers. Generally, IPTV services popular in Latin America repeatedly change domain names and/or brands to avoid detection and enforcement actions,” MPA stated last October.
The service is marketed through resellers, and some unaffiliated third parties try to profit from the brand as well. This makes it difficult to differentiate between the official site and scams, as outlined on one of the targeted sites. “BEWARE of websites that offer ‘free’ versions. These Apps and services are fraudulent and have NO relationship with Magis TV, they are clones and the dangers of their installation and use are unknown,” the note reads.
Whether this warning is legitimate or not is uncertain. However, ACE is determined to uncover who’s behind this version, and they hope Cloudflare can provide valuable information.
Aniwatch and Zorox
The recent series of DMCA notices also targeted the live-streaming portal thetvapp.to. Additionally, traditional on-demand pirate streaming sites such as ssoap2day.to, allmanga.to, aniwatchtv.to, and zoroxtv.to are included.
The latter domain, zoroxtv.to, is the new home of zorox.to, which was recently suspended by registrar Namecheap following an Indian court order.
The name Aniwatch may sound familiar, as it’s reminiscent of the popular pirate streaming portal that rebranded itself as HiAnime a few weeks ago. However, aniwatchtv.to seems to be a copycat unrelated to the original site, much like Zorox is not linked to the original Zoro, which was the predecessor of Aniwatch.
Futile?
The reappearance of the same brands in these enforcement efforts isn’t necessarily positive for ACE, as it suggests that the operators, or at least the brands, continue to evade enforcement efforts.
ACE is well aware of the limitations of its efforts and knows that pirates actively try to evade detection. However, with each enforcement action, some sites and services are taken down. ACE hopes that by maintaining the pressure, it can successfully frustrate these pirate operations.
In addition to direct enforcement efforts, ACE is also involved in research. Recently, it commissioned a piracy/malware study in India. As previous findings suggest, pirate sites are disproportionately linked to malware. Therefore, the Indian government is urged to intervene.
