The International Olympic Committee and pirates wrestle for power once every four years over streaming services during the games.
With over 10,500 competitors set to arrive in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics, it’s one of the biggest events on the sporting calendar worldwide. It’s understandable why so many people decide to watch the Olympics given the number of records that are broken and the accomplishments that athletes continue to display. The Olympics itself claim that billions of people will watch more than 350,000 hours of events that are broadcast on TV and streaming services during the games.
While many will watch the athletic feats legitimately, some will prefer to view the event in whatever manner they can, which may not always include following the rules. The International Olympic Committee, which oversees the competition, decided to sell off the rights to pay TV providers, which has led to a growing trend of events being hidden behind paywalls. For an estimated €1.3 billion in 2015, Warner Brothers Discovery purchased the European TV rights to the 2024 Games. As a result, the content that broadcasters in the UK, who formerly aired the Olympics in their entirety, are constrained. People can miss out on their favorite live action because they can only air a limited selection of it each day.
A role for piracy emerges into the void. The International Olympic Committee has already taken down notifications from Google during these Olympics, either directly through Lumen or via their piracy takedown supplier, Friend MTS. In sharp contrast to the IOC’s prior strategy of focusing on torrent distributors, the bulk of takedowns have been directed at streaming websites. The evolving strategy implies that individuals are accessing pirated content in a different method, moving away from torrenting and toward straightforward live streaming. All told, Google has received complaints about around 6,000 URLs that violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a copyright statute that shields content owners from unapproved usage.
Given that one of the primary reasons individuals would be resorting to piracy is the lack of live coverage of their preferred sport through legal methods, the move towards live streaming makes sense. Up to 50 million people may decide to opt to steal content in Europe alone during the Olympics, according to research conducted before the events.
The takedown notifications that the International Olympic Committee sent with its requests for Google and Lumen to remove links and information from their results are courteous and explicit about what the committee is looking for as well as the reasons behind their request that the content be removed off the list. The organization states, “Please note that the Olympic Games and Olympic Properties, and, in particular, regarding the audio-visual content produced for the Olympic Summer Games Paris 2024, are owned by the Olympic Committee (IOC).” “Any online or other interactive media or electronic medium may not transmit or communicate such Olympic content without the express prior written approval of the IOC, which, according to our records, has not been granted to you.”
The cat and mouse game between rights holders and pirates persists in spite of the IOC’s efforts. One streaming website gives way to another as soon as it is taken offline. Enthusiastic viewers can access pirated streams and get around geographical restrictions by using VPNs and other technological solutions. The IOC and its allies, however, are not giving up. In order to stop piracy, they are investigating new technologies. These include employing artificial intelligence to swiftly identify and stop illicit streaming and watermarking content to track down the source of leaks.
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