[lily.]

The Federal government sure has been busy the past few weeks when it comes to curbing piracy on the internet. In its latest move, the Feds have seized several domains that are used to stream illegal broadcasts of sporting events. With the Super Bowl this Sunday, officials are looking to make another statement on piracy by replacing the content on each site with the banner pictured above. So if you were hoping to use your favorite steaming site to catch the game, you may be out of luck.

Domains that have been included in the seizure are Firstrowsports.tv, Firstrowsports.com, Firstrowsports.net and Soccertvlive.net, with more most likely being added as the week proceeds. It’s interesting to note is that this marks the fist time a .tv domain has been seized in relation to the NFL championship. While seizures of this nature happened last year at the same time, this round of raids may be hitting a sore-spot with internet denizens because of the recent protests of SOPA and the governments response to said protests.

Believe it or not, the NFL has several rules in place concerning the viewing of the Super Bowl. These came as a result of non-profit groups such as churches and youth centers showing the game to large groups of people. Non-profits can show the game if they use equipment that they already own to display the action, meaning that they can’t rent TV’s or projectors for the event. Also, they can’t charge any kind of fee to people who come to watch.

Besides rebroadcasting violations, most streaming sports site have ads that display which they make money off of. While this doesn’t look like a direct violation since clicking on those ads is voluntary, someone is still getting paid for rebroadcasting something they don’t own.

The good news is that there will be some legal ways to watch the Super Bowl online, ensuring that you won’t miss any of the action.

SOURCE