Early this year, a Santiago court sided with Warner Bros. in its fight against MagisTV, FlujoTV, and XuperTV, three popular Latin American pirate streaming brands.
The 19th Civil Court of Santiago ordered all variants of these services to be blocked and instructed telecoms regulator Subtel to notify the country’s Internet providers. Subtel sent these blocking orders in January, and Warner later followed up with a criminal complaint against a local IPTV operator.
This week, new info released by Subtel shows that these initial blocking measures were just the beginning, as the blocking campaign continues to expand.
According to the regulator, the ISPs GTD, DirecTV, Entel, WOM, Mundo, ClaroVTR, Netline, and Movistar have now blocked a total of 1,954 URLs linked to illegal IPTV services. These blocklist updates come in batches, which come in regularly.
| Month | URLs | Share |
|---|---|---|
| June | 221 | |
| July | 180 | |
| August | 469 | |
| September | 319 | |
| October | 765 | |
| Total | 1,954 |
The blocked domains are not limited to MagisTV, FlujoTV, and XuperTV. Subtel also lists Cuevana, Oleada TV, Stella TV, TeleLatino, PelisPlus, Cinecalidad, and Fútbol Libre, as well as their variants and mirror sites.
Subtel’s announcement came shortly after Chilean police arrested 16 people linked to the pirate IPTV services UltraIPTV and MegaIPTV, in a separate criminal investigation.
A Matter of Data Protection
Subtel’s announcement doesn’t lead with copyright. Its headline puts digital security and data protection first, and the regulator says the procedure aims to protect citizens’ privacy and personal data.
Subtel warns that these unauthorized streaming platforms can collect sensitive data from users, leaving them exposed to cybercrime, data theft, and financial fraud.
“By installing these informal apps, users expose their bank passwords, personal data, and devices to hacks and scams, without any kind of support or protection,” says Undersecretary of Telecommunications Romina Garrido (translated).
“When using a pirate app or site, users hand over the key to their personal data to unknown organizations,” Garrido adds.
The data protection argument isn’t new. Warner’s own legal action argued that the pirate platforms put users’ personal data at risk, local media reported in February.
Garrido also points users to legal alternatives. “With these blocks, we break the chain of cybercrime and promote a legal offering that actually guarantees data protection and support, such as the one offered by Chile’s formal telecommunications industry,” she says.
MagisTV and Beyond
While the court order serves as the legal basis for the blocks, the original ruling only named MagisTV, FlujoTV, and XuperTV, according to reports at the time. Since then, the piracy blocklist has expanded considerably.
According to La Tercera, other pirate TV sites were added based on an interpretation of the ruling. Subtel, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Warner, and the Alliance Against Digital Piracy then agreed on a protocol to decide which sites should be blocked.
Subtel’s monthly figures start in June, months after the regulator notified ISPs in January. The regulator didn’t explain the gap, but it’s possible that the protocol took some time to put in place.
In practice, the anti-piracy Alliance puts together the lists of URLs, IP addresses, and domains. Subtel then forwards these to the ISPs, which implement the blocks nationwide.
The order itself is quite broad. According to Emol, it covers all variants of the three brands, including any domain, subdomain, IP address, link, redirect, or mirror site that reproduces audiovisual content, wholly or partially, without authorization.
Whac-El-Topo
Despite the growing list, the blocking efforts haven’t stopped piracy. BioBioChile found that several of the targeted sites are still online.
Our own search shows that alternatives and copycats remain easy to find as well, including sites that use the popular Cuevana, Fútbol Libre, and MagisTV brands.
As shown earlier, October is the busiest month so far, with 765 blocked URLs and several days still to go. That number will likely rise further as the game of whac-a-mole continues.
