In an interesting development at Klipcorp IP we have added to our team of
digital experts and ethical hackers by retaining the services of former IP
pirate BoxingGuru – poacher turned gamekeeper.
This has provided a unique insight into the pirate ecosystem and below are some key and hard won learnings for the readers of IPTV times.
On the ethical question of whether hiring BoxingGuru is correct whilst BoxingGuru was formerly operating on
the dark side of the digital universe he was released with merely a caution and
has no criminal convictions. He is working with KLipcorp with the full support
of the arresting authorities allowing a young man to have the chance to get
back on track and help reduce piracy. A win / win to use that favourite high score bullshit bingo term.
Some industry operators are concerned at this development but that may be a consequence of the fact that up to now they have been "marking their own homework" in terms of how effectively they are deploying considerable resources to combat IP piracy and what is coming from the horses mouth is not remotely on message.
Key insights for owners and distributors of digital content (from the horses mouth)
include;
- High audience pirate sites (live concurrent viewers over 500,000) no longer respond at all to the issuance of takedown notices. They are valuable for a chain of evidence but spending significant resources on detecting these sites is pointless.
- Where responses are offered content is immediately re-published rendering the takedown activity invalid. Re-publishing is invisible to the naked eye with the viewer being unaffected.
- There is a core of pirate activity that requires a new approach and commands over 50% of the fast growing pirate audience delivered across PC, mobile device and IPTV boxes. Many mainstream subscription channels are available 24/7/365 in high quality for free across multiple devices as the old methods of combating piracy prove impotent.
- A tight network of 30 operators (pirates, hosting companies, CDN’s and Ad agencies) dominate this market and the old fashioned approach to reducing piracy on these sites has zero impact notwithstanding the considerable resources applied.
We have a range of technologies and processes in place specifically developed to combat these rapidly evolving challenges.