Piracy: €7m in damages for Canal+, beIN, and RMC Sport against a collective of pirates

"Following a joint complaint filed by Canal+, beIN Sports, and RMC Sport, in collaboration with the Association de Lutte contre la Piraterie Audiovisuelle (ALPA), a collective of hackers which managed around twenty illegal streaming sites, including beinsport-streaming.com, was ordered by the Correctional Court of Rennes to pay more than €7m in damages to broadcasters whose content it had pirated from 2014 to 2017," announced the free and pay-TV group and Canal+ on 18/03/2021.

"The Canal+ group welcomes this heavy sentence, which sends a strong signal about the risks incurred and the seriousness of the illegal broadcasting of sports content. Committed for several years in the fight against pirating of audiovisual content of all kinds, Canal+ is pleased to have initiated this major step forward in the protection of the intellectual property rights of sports rights holders and official broadcasters in France," added the group.

"Content piracy is a growing problem with multiple repercussions across the entire sports ecosystem, the media industry and pay-TV. Hacking audiovisual content…