Hosting a Pirate Streaming Site on GitHub Isn’t the Best Idea

WishFlix is a French pirate streaming site that chose GitHub as its hosting platform. While this worked well for a while, the site was targeted by a StudioCanal takedown notice last week. WishFlix is currently still afloat but GitHub probably isn't the best hosting option for a pirate site that went viral on social media.

wishflixRunning a pirate streaming site might sound complex but with help from pre-coded scripts and illicit video databases, it can be done with minimal effort.

The real challenge is driving traffic to a site while ensuring it also stays online.

1.3m TikTok Views
WishFlix nailed the first part of that equation. The French streaming site actively campaigns on social media where it has booked some impressive results. One of its TikTok videos went viral recently, generating over a million views of free advertising with an 8-second clip.

This clearly shows that there is plenty of demand for the platform which promises access to Netflix, Disney, and Prime Video without any paid subscriptions.

wishflix tiktok
That kind of social media exposure is unprecedented for a pirate site and it definitely helped to get more viewers to the platform. Unfortunately, not all of the attention is equally appreciated.

GitHub Receives DMCA Takedown
This weekend, French media company StudioCanal sent a DMCA takedown notice to WishFlix’s hosting company. The host isn’t some vague company in an exotic location. On the contrary, the site is hosted by the Microsoft-owned developer platform GitHub.

StudioCanal didn’t have much trouble tracking down the hosting location as the WishFlix domain name gave that away already; wishflix.github.io/WishFlix.

Looking more closely at the takedown notice, we see that it lists a pirated copy of the TV series “La Flamme” as an example. WishFlix pulls its video from third-party hosting service Uqload.com but GitHub was asked to remove the page that links to the infringing content in question.

“We hereby give notice of these activities to you and request that you take expeditious action to remove or disable access to the material described above, and thereby prevent the illegal reproduction and distribution of this product(s) via your company’s network,” StudioCanal writes.

github down
WishFlix Remains Online
GitHub is rather strict when it comes to this type of infringing activity so WishFlix finds itself in a tough spot. That being said, the streaming site has not given up just yet.

The WishFlix GitHub repository remains largely unscathed and the GitHub-hosted streaming site is still online as well, at least for now. In fact, even the “La Flamme” series is still online, albeit with the exclusion of episode 7, which is the one StudioCanal highlighted in its takedown notice.

With the pressure mounting, it is questionable whether the streaming site’s luck will last much longer. Most seasoned pirate site operators will know that GitHub isn’t the best hosting option. But they can wish, of course.