Streaming Piracy Devices 'Emerging Global Threat,' MPAA Says

The MPAA identified close to two dozen linking and streaming websites, direct download cyberlockers and streaming video hosting services, website portals for piracy apps, peer-to-peer networks, advertising networks and hosting providers that it says represent the scope and nature of online content theft. A letter to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative spelling out "notorious markets" outside the U.S. made public Tuesday said streaming piracy enabled by piracy devices preloaded with software for viewing of movie and TV programming is "an emerging global threat." It said the most popular such software is Kodi, and the growth of such piracy is "startling," with 6 percent of North American households having a Kodi device configured to access pirated content. Kodi didn't comment Wednesday. Streaming sites named include Sweden's Fmovies.is and Russia's Movie4k.tv, and direct download cyberlocker sites named include Ukraine's Nowvideos.sx. Website portals singled out in the MPAA letter include Thailand's IpPlayBox.tv and related sites, P2P networks include ThePirateBay.org and Switzerland's 1337x.to, hosting providers include Netbrella, and ad networks include Canada's WWWPromoter.