In August, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) seized several domain names linked to Streameast, a popular live sports piracy website with millions of users.

The seizures were carried out by the book, but did not achieve the desired effect as Streameast remains available through alternative domains.

According to the site’s operators, they won’t stop until sports streaming becomes more affordable to the public. This message appeals to pirates, but also to opportunistic pirate site operators who have successfully cloned the Streameast brand.

When users search for “Streameast” on Google, the top result is often the copycat site “streameast.to”. Official Streameast domains like streameast.co are buried deep in search results, making it difficult for users to find the official streaming service. This is a major problem for Streameast, but one that may be alleviated with anti-piracy group ACE’s recent crackdown on these copycats.

ACE seizes sports streaming domains

In the last few days, dozens of sports streaming domains have become unavailable. This includes streameast.to, but also other cloned pirate brands such as crackstreams.dev, crackstreams.biz, nflstreams.gg, nflbite.io, nbastreams.gg, markkystreams.com, methstreams.me and many others.

ACE has yet to comment on the domain seizures, but TorrentFreak has been informed that the Motion Picture Association’s (MPA) anti-piracy division is actually responsible. This is also evident from the name servers “ns*.films.org” used by the seized domains, which are registered with the MPA.

Clones and imitators

Most of the seized domains listed at the end of the article are independent copycats of well-known brands. This includes thecrackstreams.to, formerly known as crackstreams.dev and crackstreams.biz. With around three million monthly visits, this is one of the most popular domains.

Streameast.to had by far the most traffic. With over 15 million monthly visits, it received more traffic than the official Streameast domains, partly due to the domain’s higher ranking in search engines.

Clones can be so convincing that even people who are on the official Streameast Discord channel can be misled. Yesterday some people wondered why the site was down, pointing to the seized copycat domain and not the real Streameast.

Streameast must be happy

While ACE’s actions are a blow to the copycat sites, it is also a surprising victory for Streameast itself. Weeks ago, Streameast operator “quick” compared these copycats to criminal gangs and called for action against them.

“It is mind-boggling that while the real Streameast domain names are being confiscated, the websites created by gangs who have set up fake Streameast websites are still operating. “These gangs imitate all major streaming sites and use spam tactics to rank high on Google. They have no ethical values ​​whatsoever,” Quick told us at the time.

“I wish the US would choose to deal with these gangs instead of targeting us,” “quick” added.

Although the US government was not involved in these seizures, ACE inadvertently gave the operator of Streameast what it wanted.

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Information gathered by TorrentFreak suggests that the following domain names have been seized. The full list may be longer. These domains will likely be redirected to the Watch it Legally page in the near future.

thestreameast.vip, thestreameast.pro, thestreameast.gg, thestreameast.club, streameast.to, sportsurge.io, rnbastreams.net, redditmlbstreams.cc, nhibite.io, nflstreams.gg, nflbite.io, nbastreams.gg, nbabite. io, mmastreams.to, mmastreams.io, methstreams.me, methstreams.club, methstreams.cc, Givemeredditstreams.me, footybite.io, boxingstreams.to, boxingstreams.io, crackstreams.club, crackstreams.dev, crackstreams.biz, thecrackstreams.to, streameast.to, markkystreams.com.

Update: we found even more…

methstreams.app, nba-streams.app, nfl-streams.app, nhl-streams.app, footballstreams.app, nflbite.biz, nflstreams.biz, hesgoals.club, nflstreams.club, thestreameast.club, vipbox.club, viprow.club, bestsolaris.co, boxingstreamlinks.com, boxingstreamshd.com, cfbstreams.com, f1streamlinks.com, mlbstreamlinks.com, mlbstreamshd.com, mmastreamlinks.com, mmastreamshd.com, nba-bite.com, nbastreamshd.com, nflstreamlinks.com, nflstreamshd.com, nhl-bite.com, nhlstreamlinks. com, nhlstreamshd.com, footballstreamlinks.com, footballstreamshd.com, sport-surge.com, stream2watches.com, thebuffstreams.com, methstreams.info, buff-streams.net, meth-streams.net, vip-league.net, boxingstream.org, mlb66.org, nbastreams. org, nhl66.org, rnflstreams.org, rsoccerstreams.org, thebuffstreams.org, vipleagues.org, thestreameast.pro, streameast.stream, streameast.tech, nflstreams.top, thestreameast.vip, cfbstreams.xyz, redditsoccerstreams.xyz, footballstreamlinks.xyz, viprow.xyz, crackstreams.biz, markkystreams.biz, crackstreams. Club, crack-streams.com, crackstreams.dev, markkystreams.live, markkystreams.org, crackstreams.soccer