UFC’s anti-piracy viewpoint has been far more visible in recent months, but when it came to a recent federal crackdown, it was the WWE brand that helped get the job done.
Reuters reported Thursday that a Department of Homeland Security agent posed as a WWE representative to assist in seizing a group of websites that streamed videos of live sporting events, including NFL, NBA, NHL games and professional wrestling pay-per-views.
The federal complaint charges Yonjo Quiroa, the defendant (also known as Ronaldo Solano), with one count of criminal copyright infringement. Feds claim Quiroa operated nine of the sixteen seized websites (the total list includes 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).
In building the case against Quiroa as the potential culprit, the DHS agent, posting as a WWE representative, offered to buy the various domain names from him. He allegedly responded with an offer to “make a deal.”
According to the Reuters story, his alleged piracy was documented from February 2010 until January 2012.
Most believe the seizure was strategically-designed to sync up with buzz for this weekend’s Super Bowl; a similar seizure occurred just ahead of last year’s Super Bowl.