ACE Seizes Sports Piracy Domains including Crackstream and Streameast Clones

The ACE anti-piracy coalition sidelined dozens of sports streaming sites this week with action against dozens of domain names including Crackstream and various Streameast clones. The official Streameast was targeted by the U.S. Government earlier this year, but the copycat takedowns are just as important, as these sites drew more traffic than the original.

streameast logoIn August, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) seized several domain names linked to Streameast, a popular live sports piracy site with millions of users.

The seizures were carried out by the book but did not achieve the desired effect, as Streameast remains available through alternative domains.

According to the site’s operators, they won’t stop until sports streaming is more affordable to the public. That message appeals to pirates, but also to opportunistic pirate site operators, who’ve successfully cloned the Streameast brand.

When users search for “Streameast” on Google, the top result is often the copycat site ‘streameast.to’. Official Streameast domains, like streameast.co, are buried deep in search results, making it difficult for users to find the official streaming service. This is a major problem for Streameast but one that may ease, due to the anti-piracy group ACE recently taking action against these copycats.

ACE Seizes Sports Streaming Domains
Over the past few days, dozens of sports streaming domains became unreachable. This includes streameast.to, but also other cloned pirate brands such as crackstreams.dev, crackstreams.biz, nflstreams.gg, nflbite.io, nbastreams.gg, markkystreams.com, methstreams.me, and many others.

Streameast.to can’t be reached

streameast
ACE has not yet commented on the domain seizures, but TorrentFreak is informed that the Motion Picture Association’s (MPA) anti-piracy unit is indeed responsible. This is also apparent from the ‘ns*.films.org’ nameservers used by the seized domains, which are registered to the MPA.

Streameast.to nameservers

nameserver
Clones & Copycats
Most of the seized domains, listed at the bottom of the article, are unaffiliated copycats of known brands. This includes thecrackstreams.to, previously known as crackstreams.dev and crackstreams.biz. This is one of the most popular domains with roughly three million monthly visits.

Streameast.to had by far the most traffic. With over 15 million monthly visits, it had more traffic than the official Streameast domains, partly due to the domain ranking higher in search engines.

Clones can be so convincing that even people who hang out in the official Streameast Discord channel can be misled. Yesterday, some people were wondering why the site was down, referring to the seized copycat domain, not the real Streameast.

Down?

site down
Streameast Must be Pleased
While the ACE crackdown is a blow to the copycat sites, it’s also a surprising victory for Streameast itself. Weeks ago, Streameast operator ‘quick’ compared these copycats to criminal gangs and pleaded for action against them.

“It’s perplexing that while the real Streameast domain names are being seized, the sites created by gangs who set up fake Streameast sites are still operational. These gangs replicate every major streaming site, employing spam tactics to rank high on Google, and they have no ethical values,” quick told us at the time.

“I wish the USA would choose to deal with these gangs instead of targeting us,” ‘quick’ added.

Although the U.S. Government was not involved in these seizures, ACE inadvertently gave Streameast’s operator what he wanted.

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Information gathered by TorrentFreak suggests that the following domain names were seized. The complete list may be longer. These domains will likely be redirected to the “Watch it Legally” page in the near future.

thestreameast.vip, thestreameast.pro, thestreameast.gg, thestreameast.club, streameast.to, sportsurge.io, rnbastreams.net, redditmlbstreams.cc, nhibite.io, nflstreams.gg, nflbite.io, nbastreams.gg, nbabite.io, mmastreams.to, mmastreams.io, methstreams.me, methstreams.club, methstreams.cc, givemeredditstreams.me, footybite.io, boxingstreams.to, boxingstreams.io, crackstreams.club, crackstreams.dev, crackstreams.biz, thecrackstreams.to, streameast.to, markkystreams.com