Reddit shut down one of its more popular streaming subreddits, /r/nbastreams, Tuesday morning after the site surpassed the threshold of copyright infringement claims. The subreddit had over 400,000 subscribers.
The subreddit was a community effort to provide streams of out of market games, or simply provide a higher quality stream, by having a host site with legal access to the games through NBA League Pass, or otherwise, and making it available to the subreddit’s subscribers free of charge. Illegal streaming sites are usually successful by hosting the streams abroad, making it very difficult to track and shut down.
According to Sporting News, an article from The Beaverton played a large role in outing the popular stream host. The article’s headline “NBA streams subreddit becomes Canada’s #1 TV provider” raised some eyebrows. The article claimed that although Canada saw ratings growth during the Toronto Raptors championship run, the subreddit’s stream was still a more popular option.
Once the subreddit began garnering unwanted attention, the copyright claims came through. According to Reddit’s website, the Repeat Copyright Infringement Policy is as follows:
“Our policy is to close the accounts of users, in appropriate circumstances, who have repeatedly been charged with copyright infringement. Sometimes a repeat infringement problem is limited to one user and we close just that user’s account. Other times, the problem pervades a whole subreddit community and we close the subreddit.”
Reddit is no stranger to copyright claims. Afterall, the site is almost completely user driven. However, as the site continues to grow in the mainstream eye ( /r/AMA anyone? ), the uptick in copyright claims has grown at a rapid pace.
These are the DMCA reports over the past few years from Reddit’s 2018 Transparency Report:
- 2018: 9,534 DMCA notices, which resulted in 26,234 content removals.
- 2017: 3,130 DMCA notices, which resulted in 4,352 content removals
- 2016: 1,155 DMCA notices, which resulted in 610 content removals
Reddit has had /r/mmastreams and /r/soccerstreams shut down in recent weeks as well. Although, many more still prevail on the site streaming content from wrestling to the NFL and MLB and beyond.
/R/nbastreams isn’t giving up easily. Though, as streaming become the norm, and usually with a cheaper price tag, illegal streams could calm down. But as long as NFL Sunday Ticket and the NBA League Pass and others are exclusive products with comparatively poor streaming quality and support, illegal streams will continue to be a competitor for companies to have to fight in vain.