Real-Debrid: Popular streaming service implements strong anti-piracy measures

The popular streaming and download service Real-Debrid is implementing far-reaching anti-piracy measures. This comes in response to a letter of formal notice from the French Federation of Film Distributors (FNEF). The FNEF has already taken action against several service providers who have enabled piracy.

Real-Debrid offers access to unlimited downloads from various file hosters and torrent websites. The service serves as an intermediary for accessing file hosters and also maintains a cache of previously downloaded data so that streams from torrent sites can be played directly. The offer is therefore extremely tempting for "movie pirates".

Real-Debrid has been informing users about the measures to be implemented on X since last week. The service had implemented a directive to remove content following complaints from rights holders in accordance with the DMCA. However, this did not go far enough for the French film distributors.

Rigid anti-piracy measures

In order to get out of the FNEF's field of fire, Real-Debrid wants to implement a number of measures. For example, the service now blocks "audiovisual files" on a number of so-called cyberlockers that are on a USTR blacklist or appear on the European "Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List". In accordance with the FNEF requirement, file names are also filtered – and the service intends to manually process the false positives that inevitably occur. The service also blocks torrent hashes from private torrent trackers, which are mentioned in cases before the Paris court.

Real-Debrid also wants to remove all files from the caches that meet the aforementioned criteria. The API endpoint /instantAvaibility will be removed and Kodi and Stremio apps will be blocked if they are recognizable.

Both apps, Kodi and Stremio, are popular media centers. Stremio initially displays information on current films and series and provides direct links to the legitimate streaming apps from Disney+, Netflix, Prime and the like. After a few more clicks, however, it can search torrent trackers and play content, similar to Kodi, with the corresponding plug-ins. Interested parties can enter their Real-Debrid account in both media center programs so that content can be pulled from the caches or via HTTPS instead of via P2P protocols – and thus without the risk of warnings.

It currently looks as if the rights holders are once again gaining the upper hand over content thieves. On Wednesday this week, for example, it was announced that European police authorities had busted an international gang of streaming pirates. Their IP TV platform had more than 22 million users. The perpetrators made around 250 million euros a month from illegally copied video streams from TV channels and major streaming services.

(dmk)