Illegal file hosting portal Streamz was blocked

Via the online portal Streamz, users worldwide were able to access thousands and thousands of files with copyright-protected content. Now the illegal portal has been shut down at the insistence of ACE.

ACE obtains blocking of Streamz

Even today, gigantic amounts of data of copyrighted works are illegally streamed or even downloaded every day. For a total of four years, Streamz was one of the relevant portals through which users worldwide can access a huge library. On the opposite side, however, are associations such as the Alliance for Creativity (ACE), which stand up for the copyright of the rights holders affected. ACE has now achieved a groundbreaking success against Streamz. The illegal online portal has now been taken offline. This was announced by ACE itself in a public announcement. Thus, several years of permanent violation of applicable copyrights as well as exploitation rights come to an end. Already in 2019, the file hosting service Streamz namely went to the start. Over the years, this has been able to build up a considerable library.

In addition to 15,000 episodes of various series, more than 75,000 movies are also said to have been part of the portal’s portfolio. Streamz is by no means a classic service based in a “copyright-free” zone on a Caribbean island, as is known from comparable services. The website, which had more than 7 million daily users, is said to have been operated from Germany. To be more precise, the operators were based in North Rhine-Westphalia. It is therefore not surprising that the demand for the content came primarily from Germany. According to ACE, users from Germany accounted for a third of the daily data volume transferred. However, Streamz also recorded international visitors with users from the UK, USA and other countries. This is certainly due to the fact that the portal has been linked to many other websites as a source for a stream.

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Shutdown with announcement?

As can be seen from a report by Tarnkappe, it was already noticeable a few days ago that everything was no longer running smoothly at Streamz. Via the various once active domains such as streamzz.to, streamz.cc or streamz.ws, users were no longer reaching series or movies as usual. Instead, the websites displayed funny animal videos. In the end, this shutdown is probably just a drop in the bucket. As experience shows, deleting a file hosting service only makes room for a new one. Nevertheless, ACE is pleased with its success. For example, Jan van Voorn, head of ACE, says that the blocking of Streamz is another major blow against the “content piracy ecosystem.” He further emphasizes that his most important goal is “to protect the global creative industries.”