WIPOD – Intellectual Property Matters: Transcript of Eye on Copyright Enforcement – Episode 4

Battling Illegal Live Streaming of Sports Events

Karen Lee: Welcome to Intellectual Property Matters. In this WIPO podcast, we explore the fascinating world of creativity, innovation and intellectual property. Let's listen, learn, and get inspired.

Ben Rylan: Welcome to the fourth and final episode of Eye on Copyright Enforcement. Today, we explore the world of sports and the threats posed by illegal live streaming.

There’s something quite special about watching a sporting event live, as it happens. The chance to share those exciting moments with friends and supporters all around the world elevates the whole experience. But, for some, the temptation to access live streams via illegal means can bring trouble.

Unauthorized live streaming of sports events costs the industry an estimated 3 billion US dollars every year.

Today we will examine the magnitude of the problem, and its impact on sporting organizations, broadcasters and of course, viewers.

Let’s head to Spain now to hear from my guest, who knows more than most about the intricate web of illegal streaming.

Guillermo Rodríguez: I’m the Chief Operating Officer at LaLiga Content Protection, currently managing entire anti-piracy unit that was first/ created by LaLiga and now it’s part of the joint venture between LaLiga and Globant, at LaLiga Tech.

I’m responsible for the all of the operations and anti-piracy actions that are being carried out for LaLiga and also for different broadcasters and clients who trust our technology constitution to protect their IP assets online. We are currently responsible for the protection of more than 9 billion euros on assets against piracy, protecting from live content, VOD content. We are either protecting brands against counterfeiting or brand new abuses on the Internet.

Ben Rylan: Guillermo, can you explain what constitutes unauthorized streaming of live broadcasts and how does that impact the sports industry?

Guillermo Rodríguez: Sports organizations sell their rights around the world to different broadcasting companies to show that competition in specific countries and at the end, they pay a significant price. This is hugely important for incomes, such as the players’ salaries. The broadcasters then recuperate their expenses through subscription fees paid by the users.

So, illegal streaming breaks absolutely this model: criminal actors, criminal organizations use sophisticated tools in order to locate and steal the broadcast images, and then redirect them into their own ecosystem. They redirect that stream that they have stolen into their app, into their website, into the IPTV service. In some cases, they are even charging the small fees for the user to access those environments, but at the end, where this is generating are less viewers for the licensed broadcasts, at the end affecting directly in the investment to purchase and acquire those TV rights.

The experience that you have when you are consuming piracy is not the same as you are a legitimate user. Also, there is also a part here that normally is not being taking into consideration, and that is the potential risk and theft that the pirate users are assuming when they are consuming piracy. They are giving their credit card data to those criminal organizations, they are giving the or entering those ecosystems and at the end, the end user nowadays is not taking so much in consideration all of the risks that they are assuming when they are consuming piracy.

Ben Rylan: How are sports associations like LaLiga affected by illegal live streaming of its sports events?

For our case, recent study says that LaLiga and the football industry is losing Spain, just every year more than 200 million euros because of piracy: 200 million euros that are being lost every year. But this is only for the football industry.

We have other industries that are also affected by piracy: we are talking about movies, series, we are talking about press. So piracy is a huge issue: it is not only affecting the organizations or the right holders on the first side, but it’s also affecting at the end the entire society. Different taxes are not getting paid by consuming piracy. And again, all of the public services that are supported by those taxes are being affected because of this issue.

Just to give you an idea of how big this problem is, let me put into context some of the figures of the enforcement that we did for LaLiga during this recent season: the 2022-23 season. We have removed more than 30,000 websites from the Google in-search index. We have also removed almost half a million videos on social media platforms. So we are talking about a huge issue, a huge problem, and we need to be aware of how big it is in order to allocate all of the resources and technological measures in order to mitigate and to start with an aggressive disruption strategy.

Ben Rylan: What are some of the ways that LaLiga addresses the issue of illegal streaming of its events?

Guillermo Rodríguez: We fight against piracy with four main pillars. The first pillar that we undertake is a technological pillar, for which we have developed technologies solutions since 2015, for which we have dedicated a huge amount of resources. So we create our own technological tools to fight against piracy.

The second pillar that we take is the legal one. So we open legal cases against the offenders in order to prosecute them and to look for different sentencings that are looking for a tough and aggressive actions against pirates. We open these legal cases all over the world. We are not just opening the legal cases in Spain, but we are opening the legal cases all over the world.

The third pillar for which we are fighting against piracy is the lobby. We are aware that we need to help more to contribute, to have a better legal framework that is moving as fast as pirates. So normally, the legal framework is moving much more slowly than the pirates. We are also trying to promote so that the legal framework can move fast as pirates. For that, we have now the recent recommendation from the European Union against the live pirate events and even the Digital Services Act which will be entering into force very soon.

Finally, the fourth pillar is the communication. It’s much as important to fight against piracy with technology, with the legal arms, also with the lobby, but also, to make the society conscious of the impact that they are generating when they are consuming piracy. We have a very visual campaign at LaLiga: that is, when piracy appears, football disappears. Because piracy is affecting directly the income of the league, the income of the clubs, whether if they can get a new player on board or not. So it’s affecting the team that those pirate users are they are supporting. Basically we fight (against illegal streaming) with these four pillars.

Ben Rylan: Still to come. We will hear about the global scale of illegal streaming and how LaLiga is working to tackle the problem. Stay tuned. This is Eye on Copyright Enforcement. Still with me is Guillermo Rodríguez. Guillermo, you’ve painted quite a vivid picture of just how vast this illegal streaming problem can be. It really is a global issue. What in your view are the key challenges facing the LaLiga?

Guillermo Rodríguez: The first challenge we are facing is to understand the scale of the problem. Many leagues, many sports organizations, many broadcasters, they are not aware of the scale of the problem, and this is the first challenge we are facing. Most right holders or sport organizations, broadcasters have no grasp on how easy it is even to steal the content directly from the legitimate platforms. They do not know what is happening: they do not know where the pirates are getting the contents. In order to face that we are running different audits in order to identify the vulnerabilities that the pirates are using to mitigate them and to find a solution against these vulnerabilities.

The second challenge is the removal of the content: for live sports organizations like LaLiga, time is money and acting fast is crucial. For our football matches we have 90 minutes, after those 90 minutes, the football match is gone. And most part of the value is allocated into the live game. So it’s important to create different partnership agreements and collaborations with the technology companies, with the social media platforms, with the hosting providers, in order to get the content removed just in a matter of minutes

Other challenge is shutting down the accounts. We are seeing that there are different profiles, different organic organizations that they are continuously abusing of our IP rights. And we are collaborating with social media platforms in order to not only get that video that they have uploaded, removed, but also after they do it for a few times, to get also their account taken down or even the account blocked.

Another key challenge is to have the support from the government, have the support from public institutions that in some cases, as he said they are not aware of the damage that piracy is creating. Fortunately, this is changing. This is something that we are seeing that is evolving and we are very happy for that, but there is a lot of work to do.

Ben Rylan: Although some people might say if the sporting events were easier to access or cheaper, then I would not have to stream them illegally. What’s your view on that?

Guillermo Rodríguez: Thank you Ben. I believe that this is a key element and is very interesting point. We need to be aware that abusing of an IP right is a crime. We are not legitimated to steal a Ferrari because you cannot afford it. Abusing of IP rights is a crime that we will prosecute it.

Some of the solutions that would help in this fight is first, digitalization, using technological tools in order to help fight against piracy. We are aware that the number of pirates are much more than ours. And we are aware that in some cases they move faster than us. Fortunately, this is changing.

But we are aware that using those analytical tools can help us to automatize processes, automatize the detection of the infringement, automatize the process of analysis of information and also acting in order to remove the content in just a matter of minutes.

I am aware that when different commercial options are available for the end user, this is in the end also affecting how piracy is evolving and whether the young generations are consuming piracy or not.

And for that, in the case of LaLiga for example, we got into an agreement with an OTT platform the Sun and now the content of LaLiga available on the Sun. But it’s surprising when we see that there are even some users that they are not even willing to pay five euros, 10 euros, 20 euros: they want to watch it for free, they want to steal the content.

Another issue that I believe this is very important here is the education. Sport is a really valuable product. It has a price, it has an income that at the end is the driver of the entertainment that we are enjoying every weekend. And we are developing different strategies in order to let the young consumers be aware that piracy is a direct attack to the sports they love. It is a direct attack to the club that they are supporting.

Unfortunately, a few years ago it was not so common to be aware here in Spain, for example, that piracy was a crime. But this is changing now. Also, we need more assistance at the governance level to help to create more agile lawmaking, because we are also detecting how in the same environment where piracy is being promoted or is being used, there are other criminal activities that are on the same environment. We are talking about drug trafficking, we are talking about people trafficking, prostitution; these have real human consequences.

Ben Rylan: Well, most of us probably haven’t been tempted to steal a car or rob a bank. But the thing about illegal streaming is that often, it’s just a link to a website. It’s so easy to be tricked into thinking that clicking on these links is harmless and that no one will ever know. What’s your advice to people who might be tempted to access an illegal streaming site?

Guillermo Rodríguez: My advice would be first, to be aware of the risks. There are so many risks involved when you are clicking on these naughty websites. It’s like buying products from the from the dark web: you don’t know where your money’s going, you don’t know where your data is going, you don’t know what they will be doing with that information.

When you are entering into our telegram group for example, that is sharing IPTV links or is sharing directly streaming links to enter and visualize the content, and on the same environment you have a guy that is selling passports, this is a clear sign that close relationship between piracy and other types of criminal activities. There are huge risks that the consumers are assuming. Also the punishments are severe. If you are supporting a team, it makes not so much sense to take money away from it and affecting directly your club, the players, how you will be visualizing the content every weekend - and it makes no sense at the end to consume piracy.

Ben Rylan: Thanks to my guest today Guillermo Rodríguez from LaLiga.

You’ve been listening to Eye on Copyright Enforcement, a production of the World Intellectual Property Organization brought to you with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea.

This is the final episode of our podcast miniseries.

It’s been a pleasure sharing insightful conversations on copyright enforcement with you. I’m Ben Rylan. Thanks for listening. Goodbye.