HeheStreams: Pirate site operator under indictment

US federal investigators accuse a Minnesota man of, among other things, illegal sports streaming of content from the country’s largest professional sports leagues. He is said to have made corresponding offers available on his website HeheStreams. He is also accused of blackmailing Major League Baseball (“MLB”), informed the US Department of Justice (DOJ). If convicted on all five counts, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of 37 years in prison.

The US Attorney’s Office has indicted the 30-year-old Joshua dispute from St. Louis Park, Minnesota. US federal investigators accuse him, among other things, of having infiltrated Major League Baseball (“MLB”) computer systems. As a result, he blackmailed MLB by email. He threatened to expose the vulnerability he used to gain unauthorized access unless MBL pays him $ 150,000.

Originally, he expected the company to receive a “donation” as part of a bug bounty program. However, MLB announced that while they don’t have a bug bounty program, they do have its revelations “Guess”. He then threatened to publish it in the media.

He would also have streamed copyrighted content from the MBL, the National Basketball Association (“NBA”), the National Football League (“NFL”), and the National Hockey League (“NHL”) without the legal consent of the rightsholders. The US attorney’s office has stated that controversy illegal sports streaming cost a sports league over $ 3 million in lost revenue.

Joshua Streit was also known by the name „Josh Brody“. He is said to have operated his pirate streaming website called HeheStreams from 2017 to August 2021. As the US federal authorities announced, Streit was able to stream live games from the four major US sports leagues. For that he would have “Obtain the copyrighted content by gaining unauthorized access to it using the credentials of legitimate users of the websites of these sports leagues”.

The dispute is said to have exploited a bug in the access token system of a third party in this regard. This would have enabled “HeheStreams” users to access live sports streams by authenticating themselves as legitimate users of the actual platforms.

Special features of HeheStreams IPTV service

TorrentFreak pointed out:

“Most traditional IPTV providers make it easier to access pirated streams by offering them from their own servers. This is a model that consumes a lot of bandwidth and is seen as a necessary cost to do business. What HeheStreams has managed to do is eliminate that cost almost entirely by using no pirated content at all.

Instead, a way was found to connect HeheStreams users with real streams offered by the sports channels. This had obvious advantages – no more massive streaming server bills and since official streams rarely break down or buffer, a lot of satisfied customers. “

US prosecutor Damian Williams stated on the case:

Joshua Streit is accused of illegally streaming MLB, NHL, NBA and NFL sports content online for his own personal gain. In addition, Streit is said to have hacked the MLB’s computer systems and tried to extort $ 150,000 from the league. Thanks to the agency’s collaboration with all four major American sports leagues and the FBI, dispute with its illegal streaming and extortion program has failed ”.

The website under the domain HeheStreams.com would have been included “Unlimited streaming of an entire season of MLB games for $ 100 a year” offered. MLB’s official MLB.tv streaming service, on the other hand, charges $ 129.99 for a full season, reports ArsTechnika. The site is now under the control of ACE (Alliance for Creativity).

Tarnkappe.info