2023-07-15 00:24:41
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has shut down 22 domains related to the popular South American pirate streaming site Cuevana. The anti-piracy group tracked down the Peruvian operator of the site, which has received hundreds of millions of hits in recent years. Although this variant of Cuevana is a great target, another popular Cuevana site remains online.
The pirated streaming brand, Cuevana, first appeared in 2009 and anti-piracy forces have been trying to crack down on it ever since. The original Cuevana site was founded by Tomas Escobar, then an engineering student in Córdoba, Argentina. Offering a streaming experience similar to Netflix, with a larger catalog and no subscription fees, the pirated service quickly became popular. It wasn’t long before rights holders began to take notice of the millions of users who flocked to the site. Thus began a series of law enforcement campaigns that continue to this day.
Rights holders and their anti-piracy representatives are no longer fighting Escobar. The original founder left the project many years ago and is now building a career as an entrepreneur. Escobar’s change of plans opened the doors for other would-be piracy moguls, of whom there were many. Over the past decade, dozens of new variants of Cuevana have been released, using creative variations of domain names such as Cuevanahd, Cuevana2, and Cuevana3. It’s not always clear if these new variants are linked in some way, but Cuevana has been a pain in the ass for Hollywood and has repeatedly been placed on the United States Trade Representative’s list of notorious hacking sites.
In a recent announcement, ACE reported that this seemingly endless battle has come to an end. After locating the operator of Cuevana3.ai in the district of Piura, Peru, the site has been effectively taken down. Now, people who visit Cuevana3.ai, Cuevana3.me, Cuevana3.be or any of the other domains operated by this individual are redirected to the ACE “Look Legally” page. The association has taken control of a total of 22 domain names, which accounted for more than 100 million hits between March and May of this year. Some of these domains did not receive any traffic, but were kept as a backup just in case.
ACE boss Jan van Voorn said: “The biggest Spanish-language piracy streamer in Latin America is no more, thanks to a tireless global effort that involved law enforcement and judicial authorities from various Latin American countries and ACE global teams in Latin America and other parts of the world.«. An ACE spokesperson says that, to the best of their knowledge, no criminal charges will be filed against the operator. If the site remains offline, the main goal will have been achieved. However, history seems to be repeating itself once more. When the group reported removing Cuevana two years ago, Cuevana3.io was still online. Now that the Cuevana3.io threat has been finally fixed, another Cuevana is taking its place.
Despite efforts to shut down piracy sites, the problem persists due to the very nature of the Internet. For every site that closes, others quickly emerge to take its place. The operators of these pirate sites are agile, using strategies such as changing domains, using name variations, and moving to jurisdictions where law enforcement is more lax. Furthermore, the demand for pirated content remains high, whether due to its free content, the availability of unauthorized content, or the lack of accessible legal options in certain regions. This constant game of cat and mouse between anti-piracy efforts and pirate operators has led to an endless cycle in which, even if some victories are achieved, a new challenge always arises.
Fuente: Torrent Freak
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