Reddit Forum Inactive Following Copyright Complaint

2019/01/25

Online forum Reddit Soccer Streams has been forced to abandon its streaming of live football over concerns about copyright infringement. The forum, located on popular website Reddit, hosted free streams for football matches, including games from the English Premier League (EPL) and the Scottish Premier League. The EPL, which owns the copyright for all broadcasts of the competition’s matches, has taken steps to crack down on illegal streaming. Reddit administrators contacted the operators of the forum, informing them that Reddit planned to shut the streaming site if it continued to host infringing content. Reddit Soccer Streams has over 430,000 subscribers. The moderators of the forum, in a post to its members, advertised two new sites where streams for football matches could be shared. Illegal football streams have come under increasing pressure from the EPL. In May last year, TBO reported that “a renowned pirate” of copyright-protected football broadcasts was ordered to pay the EPL £600,000 (US $777,481) after being found to have sold subscriptions to illegal streams. Last July, the league’s ownership body won a UK High Court order requiring British internet service providers to block servers hosting illegal streams of EPL matches.

Source: WIPR