08-08-2025
Massive Piracy Site To Shut Down
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has had another win in its fight against digital piracy, succeeding in getting Rare Breed IPTV shut down.
The North Carolina-based was one of the world's largest digital piracy operations, and has been operating for years. It offered more than 28,000 live television channels from around the world, along with more than 100,000 movies and series in formats including 4K and HD, all without the consent of the copyright holders. Its packages started from $15.99 per month.
With support from its member studios, ACE identified the people behind Rare Breed. And while the service's website is still active, it has now agreed to cease its infringing activities, pay financial compensation and fully cooperate with ACE from now on.
"This enforcement action sends a strong message to piracy operators worldwide,' said Larissa Knapp, executive vice president and chief content protection officer of the Motion Picture Association.
'Operating an illegal streaming service comes with serious consequences—including lawsuits, substantial financial penalties, and permanent shutdown.'
Set up in 2017, ACE is a coalition of more than 50 media and entertainment companies around the world, including sports channels and associations, with Amazon, Apple TV+, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros Discovery as its current governing board members.
Dedicated to protecting the legal creative market, it aims to reduce digital piracy through criminal referrals, civil litigation, and cease-and-desist operations.
Over the last few years,ACE has successfully taken down a number of piracy platforms including streaming providers Openload, and Streamango, pirate IPTV service Beast IPTV, the streaming site, and what was the world's largest anime piracy site,
It was also involved in the takedown of online subscription-based service Jetflicks, which allowed users to stream and at times download copyrighted television programs without the permission. At one point, Jetflicks claimed to have 183,285 different television episodes available - significantly more than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Amazon Prime, or any other licensed streaming service.
Late last month, five Nevada men received a final judgment for their part in the operation, giving them prison terms of up to 84 months.
'This scheme generated millions of dollars in criminal profits, and hurt thousands of U.S. companies and individuals who owned the copyrights to these shows but never received a penny in compensation from Jetflicks," said acting assistant attorney general Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
