The operators of the 8maple pirate streaming site have been arrested and sentenced to prison in Taiwan.
8maple was founded in 2014 by two Taiwanese software engineers. Initially, the site was promoted as a commercial advertising platform but soon transformed into a full-blown piracy portal.
The 8maple site was pulling in millions of visitors each month and generating large sums in advertising revenue.
Spending an estimated US$9,800 on server hosting each month, early estimates suggested the men behind 8maple may have been generating around US$65,600 in monthly revenues.
By early 2020, the site’s main domain at 8maple.ru was pulling around 35 million visits per month, generating around US$133,000 per month in revenue.
8Maple Streaming Site Shutdown
After an investigation by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (MPA-APC), Japan-based Content Overseas Distribution Associations (CODA), and local TV network Sanli TV was conducted, Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau closed down 8maple.ru in March 2020.
Two men in their thirties, Chen Su (33), and Zhuang Su (32), were arrested. Their bank accounts were seized with $1.9m of illegal gains. Domains such as 8maple.ru and 8drama.com were taken down.
They were charged with copyright infringement offenses. Taiwan’s Telecommunications Investigation Corps estimated that 8maple had caused damages of around NT$ 1 billion (US$33.2m).
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has released a statement praising the sentencing of these men. It also includes the confiscation and forfeiture of NT$ 58.8million (US$1.97million) in illegal gains.
Fraud Alternative Sites
Other sites that have similar branding attempted to fill the market gap after 8maple was shut down. The two platforms 8maple.biz/9maple.org are connected and attract less than four million visitors per month.
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Many others operating under the imaple8 and imaple8 brands appear to be part of a ring.
They receive approximately three million visits each month, but even if both sets of sites are combined, they still do not have the same exposure as the original 8maple platforms. This is a success story for Taiwan’s TV and movie studios, and the authorities.
For more information on this story, you can view the official Taiwan News story or a report from TorrentFreak.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen anti-piracy groups shut down pirate sites and services.
- Top Piracy Threats Reported to US Government
- Marvel Streams IPTV Operator Arrested
- Smooth Streams Shut Down by ACE
- Iconic Streams Shut Down by ACE
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