Andre Yoskowitz
3 Feb 2012 13:30
In an effort to shut down illegal sports streaming sites before the Super Bowl on Sunday, American prosecutors have taken down 16 popular sites including FirstRowTV.
Thousands of users use the sites to watch NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and Fifa streams, not to mention pay-per-view events like UFC or boxing.
One man, 28-year-old Yonjo Quiroa of Michigan, has been arrested and charged with being the operator behind 9 of the sites. Authorities say Quiroa made over $13,000 profit from the sites through advertisements.
The list of the sites taken down is: firstrow.tv, firstrowsports.com, firstrowsports.net, firstrowsports.tv, hq-streams.tv, robplay.tv, soccertvlive.net, sports95.com, sports95.net, sports95.org, sportswwe.net, sportswwe.tv, sportswwe.com, xonesports.tv, youwwe.com and youwwe.net.
Last year, days before the Super Bowl, as well, U.S. authorities took down 10 similar sites. As with all piracy-based activities, if you take down one, many more will just pop up to take its place, as is expected after the demise of firstrow.