Since October 2022, Arcom has blocked 166 domain names of sites hosting pirate content, as part of its new prerogatives allowing it to act against illegal “mirror” sites without a new court decision, announced the Arcom.
This series of blockages is the result of a cooperation, initiated on October 5, 2022, between Arcom and rights holders to fight against illegal downloads. Among the blocked sites, some very popular streaming sites like cpasmieux or frenchstream. Since 2021, Arcom can be seized to block services containing illegal content from sites already sentenced by the courts. And this without further intervention by the judge, which speeds up the procedures.
Soon a communication campaign
This “blocking of the initial sites made it possible to reduce the audience of the galaxies targeted by 23% between October 2022 and March 2023”, according to Arcom, which intends to step up its fight against mirror sites in the second quarter of 2023. Arcom will launch a awareness campaign on the subject from mid-June (television, radio, cinema, platforms and social networks).
If streaming sites are often prevented from acting, on the other hand the sites for downloading live films, aimed at more tech-savvy Internet users, continue to replicate and move quickly. “Relying on strong brands for several years, they can, almost instantly after their blocking, create new mirror sites and distribute the domain name”, regrets Arcom.
Blockages that change certain behaviors
“The blocking measures remain insufficient for the moment on direct download services such as wawacity, zoneannonce or zonetelechargement”, recognizes Arcom, while arguing that its action is beginning to impact illegal practices. A first overall report indicates, according to a survey by Médiamétrie, that “during the last six months, 38% of Internet users with illicit practices acknowledge having already been confronted with a blocking of an illicit cultural service”.
“Faced with this situation, 7% of the Internet users concerned declare that they have turned to the legal offer and 46% have abandoned their search. On the other hand, 6% sought to circumvent the blocking and 41% referred to other illicit services”, according to this survey carried out according to the method of quotas with a representative sample of 2,000 Internet users aged 15 or over.