UptoBox, inaccessible for almost 24 hours, could remain disconnected forever, after an operation carried out on the premises of two hosts of this illegal direct download site. The platform had been in the crosshairs of justice and rights holders for months. It was already the subject of blocking measures, imposed by the courts – measures that the platform easily managed to circumvent.
It’s been almost 24 hours since the UpToBox and UpToStream sites have been completely inaccessible: will these hot spots for film and series piracy in France remain closed? In any case, this is the will of the ACE coalition (Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment), a collective of rights holders bringing together numerous streaming platforms and audiovisual groups. This association underlined, in a communicated published Wednesday September 20, that Apple TV +, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Columbia, Paramount and Canal +, were at the origin of this “ closing “. Operations would be underway in France and the United Arab Emirates, she said.
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A little earlier today, we learned about The Informed that a police raid targeted the premises of two Uptobox hosts located in Vitry-sur-Seine, Scaleway and OpCore. The twenty police officers who were on site sought to identify the site administrators, as well as UpToBox’s premium subscribers. They would have succeeded in finding the platform’s servers thanks to a photo, shared in 2018 on Twitter, detail our colleagues at The Informed.
A few hours later, UpToBox explained, on its X account, that they had lost access to the servers containing user files. But the platform does not confirm any seizure of servers, and specifies that “ (his) team is working hard to resolve this situation as quickly as possible “. The download site database would have been relocated off-web, and “ the servers operating the site have been wiped in their entirety “, she added. On this site, Internet users could have access to numerous films, series or video games, for free or through a paid premium subscription.
Following the incident, we lost access to the servers containing the user files, they are no longer reachable, we have not yet had any documented confirmation of the seizure of our servers by anyone.
— Uptobox.com (@Uptobox_com) September 20, 2023
Two French people managed the Dubai service, according to ACE
In its press release, ACE writes that the “ illegal service boasted a massive audience, mainly in France, but also in Indonesia, India and Mexico, with 1.5 billion visits in the last three years “. According to the alliance, “ the two French nationals who ran this illegal service are based in Dubai, where they amassed illegal profits by selling advertising and premium subscriptions “.
For months, Uptobox has been in the crosshairs of audiovisual content producers, and especially the justice system. The European Commission included the platform in its counterfeiting and piracy monitoring blacklist published on December 1, 2022, Arcom did the same in last April. UptoBox is described there as “ a direct download cyberlocker » of films and video games.
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Also read: Film piracy: why Uptobox is blocked in France
The platform in the crosshairs of justice for months
Last May, the Paris judicial court had already ordered ISPs to block several addresses linked to Uptobox for eighteen months, due to serious infringement of copyright or related rights. The court considered that the platform “ incites the violation of copyright and related rights by setting up tools specifically intended for the mass and illicit sharing of protected content, by knowingly promoting this sharing, in particular through an economic model which leaves assume that its operators play an active role in sharing infringing files “.
A game of cat and mouse ensued. The site had circulated new domain names to circumvent the blockage. To which the court responded by adding these two new addresses last July – measures immediately circumvented by UpToBox which was quick to draw out new domain names… The endless story could, finally, find an outcome.
The Informed