WishFlix, a French pirate service that illegally serves content from platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video, is no longer on GitHub. After going viral on TikTok and attracting the attention of media companies and anti-piracy organizations, the service had to withdraw from the Microsoft platform and had its account on the social dance network taken down.
As contradictory as it may seem, the problems for WishFlix began when the platform went viral on TikTok, in a video showing the catalog of movies and series available on its platform.
With more than one million views, the video served as a great marketing campaign for the service, but, on the other hand, it caught the attention of responsible bodies that decided to take action on the matter.
The first of these was StudioCanal, a French media company that demanded the removal of its content. In the DMCA notice (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), a US law that criminalizes copyright infringement, the company pointed to the infringement committed by WishFlix when broadcasting the French series La Flameavailable on Canal+ streaming.
Thanks to the complaint, the episode in question was taken off the air, but the service managed to remain active on GitHub, albeit with the rope around its neck.
The withdrawal from Microsoft’s network only happened some time later, when ALPA, a respected French organization for the protection of audiovisual creation, decided to intervene. The agency demanded that the entire repository on the site be taken down, recalling that copyright violations are punishable by imprisonment in France.
TikTok, for its part, also decided to follow in GitHub’s footsteps and took down the service’s account, taking its famous viral video down. Soon, another Wishflix account appeared on the dance network, this time reaching numbers much lower than its predecessor.
Wishflix sails through gray waters
With a catalog that includes some of the most popular French and international productions, Wishflix operates in a “gray area” of piracy. Without charging a subscription, the site says it does not host the videos in its catalog directly, only incorporating them from third-party sources to carry out their transmission.
Taking even more risks than similar sites, the platform hosted its repository directly on GitHub, famous for having a non-tolerant policy with copyright issues.
The matter, by the way, as seen by the ALPA statement, is taken very seriously in France, a country whose laws are quite severe in punishing this type of crime.
According to the company, in cases of repeated violations, the punishment of those responsible can lead to up to six years in prison and a huge fine, in the amount of one million euros (more than 5 million reais).
Own website and TikTok membership
Wishflix still hasn’t given up on staying in the air.
Despite the departure from GitHub and the imminent risks, the site now has its own domain, using a French hosting provider to make its catalog available.
Still with many broken movies and buttons, the service seems, however, that it is “putting the house in order”: in addition to having managed to redirect its old space on GitHub to the new address, it displays a notice on the platform that it will inform its users. users when everything is working.
For this, the service has been using Telegram to chat with the public. The idea is to look for other ways to publicize the service and have an official channel for news.
With information: TorrentFreak
https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/2022/10/27/servico-de-pirataria-se-apoia-no-telegram-depois-de-ser-expulso-do-github-e-tiktok/