Many of the affected sites displayed a banner indicating the involvement of three government agencies \u2013 IPR Center, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n
Data clearly showed that the domains were all connected to illicit live sports streaming, but it took another three days for that to be officially confirmed.<\/p>\n
On December 13, the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland confirmed that more than 50 domains had been seized to protect FIFA World Cup 2022. None of the domains were mentioned by name, but TorrentFreak independently identified\u00a0just over three dozen<\/a>.<\/p>\n Less than a week later, with some sites using backup domains and some investing in replacements, U.S. law enforcement followed up with a\u00a0new wave of seizures<\/a>\u00a0that attempted to whack-the-moles as they resurfaced.<\/p>\n At least for the time being, the domain seizures appear to have stopped, but that in itself only adds to the growing list of questions.<\/p>\n Why seize these domains and not others? Why seize domains to protect FIFA when a) football isn\u2019t exactly popular in the U.S. and b) there are plenty of bigger sites covering NFL\/NBA\/NHL\/UFC etc, and continue to do so? Why not seize domains every month, every week, or even every day?<\/p>\n We don\u2019t have definitive answers on any of these questions, but data collected by TorrentFreak on close to 70 seized domains (listed at the end of this article) offers pointers on why some domains could be more vulnerable than others. The bigger picture over millions of domains suggests that many pirate sites are already vulnerable to domain seizures.<\/p>\n The live sports streaming piracy market is both huge and global. Public streaming websites are just a part of a larger picture where even the seizure of 70+ domains has limited impact, despite inconveniencing hundreds of millions of monthly visitors.<\/p>\n The chart below shows the seized domains that enjoyed the most traffic, measured by their visits in November 2022, before the seizures began. The list started as a \u2018Top 10\u2019 but due to some\u00a0replication of traffic<\/a>\u00a0across WeakStreams and SoccerStreams, one of the domains was excluded.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Given that the United States is behind these domain seizures, we wanted to determine where these sites were (and in some cases still are) most popular. The domains listed below are followed by monthly visits data for November 2022 (SimilarWeb data, rounded), their five most popular visitor countries, and the percentage of each domain\u2019s total traffic they accounted for.<\/p>\n Librefutbol.com \u2013 70m \u2013 Argentina 45%, Peru 14%, Columbia 9%, Mexico 5%, Chile 4% While visitors from the U.S. account for around a quarter of visits to three of the most popular domains in the list, Argentina\u2019s love for Librefutbol.com amounted to 31.5m visits per month in November alone \u2013 in a nation of fewer than 46 million people.<\/p>\n New domains for the site are reportedly in operation, but the seizure will have had a significant effect on traffic, at the worst possible time for Argentinian football fans.<\/p>\n The domains listed above show a reasonable spread of extensions \u2013 from .com to .tv, through .net and .me \u2013 but the full list offers even more variety and clearly no better protection against seizure.<\/p>\n Despite having a reputation for being at least a\u00a0little more<\/em>\u00a0resilient than most, a pair of .to domains also found themselves directed toward U.S. Government servers. A pair of domains registered with Sarek Oy stood up no better, despite the registrar having a reputation for being an\u00a0awful lot<\/em>\u00a0more resilient than others.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nearly 15% of the seized domains were registered with GoDaddy, but with 4.4m domains and almost 15% of the domain market overall, that looks normal. NameCheap-registered domains accounted for almost 27% of seizures against its 14% market share but with 4.06m domains overall, anything could happen if another 50 or 100 domains were added to the seizure list.<\/p>\n After examining close to 70 domains in search of a pattern or anomaly, little about the domains suggest anything out of the ordinary. All are clearly susceptible to seizure whenever U.S. authorities decide that\u2019s the appropriate course of action.<\/p>\n One thing is glaringly obvious, however. When U.S. authorities need something done, it certainly doesn\u2019t hurt when domain companies are on home soil. And they are, overwhelmingly so.<\/p>\n Of all domains seized in December based on allegations of illegal streaming, almost 69% were registered with US-based companies. The runner-up with just over 13% of the domains was India-based PDR Ltd, but ultimately even that has US-based owners.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That leads to the biggest question of all: if 70 or so domains can be seized in the blink of an eye, why can\u2019t 700 or 7,000? Even if the domains were seized as part of an adversarial legal process, the chances of any domain owners appearing in the U.S. to fight for their return are vanishingly small. And that means only one thing \u2013 more domain seizures.<\/p>\n Given the tendency towards symbolism, a new wave of seizures may coincide with a major sporting event or a notable date in Hollywood\u2019s diary. Precisely when is unknown but one thing is certain; any domain with a connection to the U.S. is vulnerable and finding alternatives may not be as easy as it sounds.<\/p>\n The Pirate Bay has operated from thepiratebay.org for years, which may be seen as a plus for domains with a .org extension. Indeed, it appears that operators of a handful of the sports streaming sites listed below have switched to a .org variant, despite the controlling\u00a0Public Interest Registry<\/a>\u00a0and parent Internet Society both having a base in Virginia, United States.<\/p>\n Indeed, when more than 240 Z-Library domains were\u00a0seized last month<\/a>, among them were z-lib.org, b-ok.org, book4you.org, hk1lib.org, art1lib.org, ca1lib.org, eg1lib.org, and at least two dozen more with a .org extension.<\/p>\n For reference, we compared the WHOIS records of thepiratebay.org (registrar easyDNS Technologies \u2013 Canada) with the WHOIS records of ten random Z-Library .org domains that currently have DNS records pointing to SeizedServers.com.<\/p>\n Book4you.org is the only domain with a registrar in the United States (GoDaddy.com, LLC). The next seven \u2013 b-ok.org, zlib.org, hk1lib.org, cl1lib.org, art1lib.org, ca1lib.org, eg1lib.org and au1lib.org \u2013 were all registered with Canada-based Tucows Domains.<\/p>\n 2lib.org was also registered with Tucows, with Njalla-owner 1337 Services LLC as the registrant. Privacy was most likely maintained but the domain was still seized, unlike The Pirate Bay\u2019s which appears impossibly bulletproof. For now, at least.<\/p>\n Domains Seized By U.S. Authorities (December 2022, list may be incomplete)<\/em><\/p>\n \u2013 222live.com <\/p>\n Source: \u00a0The Domain Seizure Mystery<\/h2>\n
Seizures Targeted Some High Traffic Domains<\/h2>\n
![\"seized](\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/seized-domains-fifa-by-traffic-x-2022.png\")
<\/a><\/center> <\/p>\n
\nScore808.com \u2013 32.1m \u2013 Malaysia 9%, Kenya 9%, Indonesia 6%, Nigeria 5%, UAE 5%
\nHesgoal.com \u2013 30.1m \u2013 UK 14%, U.S. 11%, Belgium 6%, Sweden 6%, Netherlands 4%
\nFreestreams-live1 \u2013 21.1m \u2013 U.S. 23%, UK 13%, Canada 9%, Poland 3%, Germany 3%
\nSoccerstreams.net \u2013 16.4m \u2013 U.S. 22%, Canada 12%, UK 12%, Portugal 6%, India 3%
\nistream2watch.com \u2013 10.8m \u2013 U.S. 26%, Canada 9%, UK 6%, Portugal 5%, Germany 3%
\nRojadirectatv.tv \u2013 11.7m \u2013 Spain 32%, Columbia 17%, Mexico 14%, Argentina 8%, Chile 8%
\nSteamlivenow.me \u2013 10.7m \u2013 U.S. 28%, Canada 9%, UK 6%, Portugal 5%, Germany 4%
\nYalla-Shoots.com \u2013 8.4m \u2013 Egypt 19%, Morocco 15%, Algeria 9%, UAE 6%, Germany 6%<\/em><\/p>\nDomain Registrars<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/seized-domains-fifa-by-registrar-2022.png\")
<\/a><\/center> <\/p>\nLocation, Location, Location<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/seized-domains-fifa-by-registrar-location-2022.png\")
<\/a><\/center> <\/p>\nSuggestions That .org Domains Are \u2018Safe\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n\u2013 247football.net
\n\u2013 88kanqiu.tv
\n\u2013 88zhibo.net
\n\u2013 9goal.tv
\n\u2013 9goaltv.cc
\n\u2013 9goaltv.to
\n\u2013 acrackstreams.com
\n\u2013 ajsports.tv
\n\u2013 amzfootball.com
\n\u2013 beeduball.com
\n\u2013 bongtron1.live
\n\u2013 cado89.com
\n\u2013 crichd.pro
\n\u2013 eplsite.football
\n\u2013 extremotvplay.com
\n\u2013 freestreams-live1.com
\n\u2013 futbollatam.com
\n\u2013 futbollatin.com
\n\u2013 futboltv-envivo.com
\n\u2013 futboltv.biz
\n\u2013 futboltv.live
\n\u2013 ghiban1.live
\n\u2013 ghiban2.com
\n\u2013 goaltime.tv
\n\u2013 guduballs.com
\n\u2013 hesgoal.com
\n\u2013 hesgoal.me
\n\u2013 hesgoal.pro
\n\u2013 hesgoal.tv
\n\u2013 ijube.com
\n\u2013 istream2watch.com
\n\u2013 juventus-live-stream.com
\n\u2013 koragol.com
\n\u2013 librefutbol.com
\n\u2013 live-sports-stream.net
\n\u2013 livetv605.me
\n\u2013 mythethao.com
\n\u2013 mythethao.live
\n\u2013 ovopremium.com
\n\u2013 polysportstv.info
\n\u2013 releasesky.com
\n\u2013 rojadirecta-futbol.live
\n\u2013 rojadirecta.global
\n\u2013 rojadirecta.me
\n\u2013 rojadirecta.vip
\n\u2013 rojadirectaliga.com
\n\u2013 rojadirectatv.tv
\n\u2013 rojadirectatvlive.com
\n\u2013 rojadirectatvonline.net
\n\u2013 score808.com
\n\u2013 soccer24hd.com
\n\u2013 soccerstreams.net
\n\u2013 soccerstreams.to
\n\u2013 sportstream.tv
\n\u2013 streamlivenow.me
\n\u2013 tarjetarojaonlinetv.com
\n\u2013 tenorsky.com
\n\u2013 toplivematch.com
\n\u2013 toplivematch.net
\n\u2013 tructiep99.com
\n\u2013 tvrojadirectaonline.net
\n\u2013 vipleagues.net
\n\u2013 weakstream.net
\n\u2013 weakstreams.com
\n\u2013 wizwig1.com
\n\u2013 yalla-shoots.com<\/em><\/p>\n![\"TorrentFreak\"](\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/torrentfreak.png\")
<\/a> TorrentFreak.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"