The Justice Department worked with FIFA, NBCUniversal, and Warner Bros. to identify and shut down domains operating in Peru, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Poland, and Colombia.
Almost 400 web addresses were seized by authorities in the United States that were used to stream the world cup without permission as part of a coordinated international effort to take down the networks profiting from one of the most-watched sporting events worldwide.
Who Was Behind the Action
The US Justice Department announced on Friday that these domains were seized with assistance from FIFA, Warner Bros. and NBCUniversal. The action targeted all the servers and domains that were involved in unauthorized streaming worldwide. There were confirmed disruptions in Peru, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Poland, and Colombia. According to Eric Weindorf, Special Agent of the Homeland Security Investigations, users of the sites were not only violating copyright laws but were also exposed to malware attacks and unsecured networks, creating risks to their personal and financial data.
The Scale of What Was Being Pirated
The World Cup, which kicked off on June 11 across the host nations of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, has broken attendance records and drawn television audiences that rank among the most-watched programs of the year, according to Nielsen data. The United States win over Australia topped the viewership charts in recent weeks, making the tournament’s broadcast rights among the most commercially valuable in global sport. That scale of audience makes it an obvious target for illegal streaming operations.
Why It Matters Beyond Sport
This seizure is part of a trend toward treating large-scale sports piracy as an organized crime rather than a copyright issue; law enforcement has taken a more aggressive stance toward unauthorized use of sports properties. With matches starting on July 19 in three host countries across 16 cities, authorities plan to continue to apply pressure against illegal streaming networks until the last match.
