Millions of people across the Americas have accessed illegal broadcasts of sporting events this year. In recent years, many have done so through the website “Fútbol Libre,” which has recently established itself as one of the most popular illegal streaming platforms for sporting events in Latin America.
But last month, around the time Colombia and Uruguay were playing in the semi-finals of the 2024 Copa América, users discovered that the site had been shut down. Shortly after, the arrest of the website’s creator, a 23-year-old young man from Mendoza known as “Kahsad”, was announced.
A group of powerful companies was behind the push to shut down Fútbol Libre, a website that operated across multiple domains and servers, making it difficult to track and definitively eliminate. Images of matches purchased by the television company DirecTV, a major player in the region, were streamed for years by Fútbol Libre and another similar website, Megadeportes.
The defendant in the case now faces a prison sentence of up to six years, according to Argentine cybercrime prosecutor Alejandro Musso, who is leading the case. “About four or five months ago, a major broadcasting company that owns the digital rights to football here in Argentina reported that its signal had been stolen and broadcast for free across the country,” the prosecutor explained in a radio interview.
Musso confirmed that the original report was submitted by the Alianza Contra la Piratería Audiovisual (Alliance Against Audiovisual Piracy), which he defined as “an association for the protection of the copyrights of many companies at an international level.” On its website, the group defines itself as “a non-profit organization whose aim is to combat all forms of piracy that harm not only the industry but also governments.”
Musso also announced that the investigation began several months ago when it was discovered that one of the Copa Sudamericana matches between Boca and Nacional Potosí was streamed live on a website and watched by hundreds of thousands of people.
“It had over 4,200,000 views outside of the pay system,” he stressed, explaining that the exclusive rights to these games were acquired by DirecTV.
Regarding the arrested man, he explained that he was a young political science student from Godoy Cruz, in the province of Mendoza, who had “quite a lot of knowledge in the IT field.” However, to the prosecutor’s surprise, he only had an average computer and no great technology.
“The young man is not rich, but he is part of a machine in which there are people above him who sell advertising. Before users of these sites could access the game they wanted to watch, many advertisements appeared from companies related to the game and sports betting,” explained Musso. “This is how the medium makes money.”
The crime of which “Kahsad”, the alleged founder of Fútbol Libre, is accused is similar to fraud or theft. Depending on the aggravating circumstances, if convicted, he could be sentenced to between one month and six years in prison.
The anti-piracy organization that filed the original complaint includes the industry’s leading players in Latin America, including DirecTV Latinoamérica, SimpleTV (Venezuela) and SKY Brasil, as well as other pay-TV signal programmers and content producers such as Warner Bros, Discovery and The Walt Disney Company.
According to the company’s website, the list includes “La Liga, Grupo Globo, Win Sports, Telecine, 1190 (Perú) and Ole Distribution (representing the broadcasters A&E Networks, NBCUniversal, Sony and IVC).”
The Alianza Contra la Piratería Audiovisual also includes professional football leagues such as the Argentine First Division-Professional League. Industry associations such as Nagra Kudelski, the Brazilian pay-TV association ABTA and the Chamber of Producers and Programmers of Audiovisual Signals CAPPSA are also part of the powerful group.
Martín Becerra, a professor and researcher at the CONICENT scientific research institute specializing in media, describes piracy as “another problem in the industry that cannot take into account digitalization and the way we view content.”
In an interview with Urbana Play, he said: “Thousands of websites like Fútbol Libre will flourish if the audiovisual industry does not get going.”
Other well-known websites are also coming under international scrutiny as industry leaders crack down on illegal broadcasters.
In 2022, Igor Seoane, the founder of the Spanish-language streaming website RojaDirecta, which also broadcast top-level football matches to an international audience, was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of 500,000 euros for piracy offenses.
This legal action was strongly supported by LaLiga, the Spanish top-flight football league, which is a member of the Anti-Piracy Alliance. The league cited intellectual property infringement because the site contained links to illegal websites broadcasting all sorts of sporting events.
– TIMES/PROFILE
