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Federal Agent Poses As WWE Rep To Seize Websites That Linked To Pirated Telecasts

Richard Gray February 2, 2012 WWE News 34 Comments

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security enforcement agent posed as a WWE representative last week and offered to buy various domain names from a Michigan man named Yonjo Quiroa. In reality, the agent was part of an operation to take down 16 websites owned by Quiroa, who is also known as Ronaldo Solano, that linked to other websites that hosted pirated telecasts.

Reuters reported today that Quiroa, 28, was making at least $13,000 from online merchants who advertised with him. His websites linked to other sites that hosted pirated telecasts from the NFL, NBA, NHL, WWE and TNA Impact Wrestling.

The seized websites are firstrow.tv, firstrowsports.com, firstrowsports.net, firstrowsports.tv, hq-streams.tv, robplay.tv, soccertvlive.net, sports95.com, sports95.net, sports95.org, sportswwe.net, sportswwe.tv, sportswwe.com, xonesports.tv, youwwe.com and youwwe.net.

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Richard Gray

Richard Gray is the owner and editor of WrestlingNewsWorld.com. Covering the professional wrestling business since 1999, Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from West Virginia University. He is also the owner of Gray Internet Technologies, LLC. and should be contacted with all business matters. You can friend him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter. Email him directly at [email protected].

MsMojoRisin

damn… now i have to buy my povs
- MsMojoRisin
  
  ppvs
Patrick_Peralta

wow what the fire under for them to be doing that. took them long enough.
Dave Barton

So thats why illegal stream sites are around, so they can make $$ from advertisers? I just assumed it was to be an obnoxious pirate.
- Jaryd
  
  In fairness I think this guy is obviously being a crook on purpose. But there are times, case in point the guy from England that they want to extrodite for posting links to free to watch TV shows, when the authorities and the TV companies need to just get over themselves.
  - Chris_Storm
    
    Get over themselves? Really? They spend millions upon millions of dollars to put together programs only to have someone steal them and show them for free while gaining advertising money? There is a word for that, theif. Thieves belong in jail. There are a few shows that I stream online but I won't complain when they are shut down, because I know that I have no right to watch them for free.
gpturbo81

1 goes down, 3 start up…
Karl

Looks like WNW could be next.
- kbunyon
  
  Why would that be?
  
  We don't post illegal content here. We don't show PPVs, nor do we promote the watching of PPVs illegally.
  
  KB
- Kleck
  
  WNW doesn’t pirate telecasts
Gooker

NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO….I mean, I've never seen those sights ever.
- H.M.
  
  sites*
BollyMexCPhT

Good luck with that WWE and FBI/Gov. There are thousands of streams and many new ones that pop up every day. Its a winless battle. Waste your resources on something more productive.
mathew30

im interested to know about "Quiroa, 28, was making at least $13,000 from online merchants who advertised with him" is this $13k per website per year, per website per month, per week, or 13k for all site per year and so fourth.

any way to find this out?

and anyway to find how many users he would have viewing the streams per ppv?
Tom

If they'd go back to the days where the PPV's were like $29.95 each month… this would probably be less of a problem… $55 for the rumble was absurd.
- BollyMexCPhT
  
  This is true. There would less streaming if this was the case.
- [email protected]
  
  I agree that 44 & 54 dollars is just too much for a ppv every month and sonetimes twice a month. I understand wrestlemania being that much but every single ppv is not fair.. but Vince knows someone is gonna buy it anyways. it would take for them to sell as much ppv as tna for them to drop the price unless we see a change with the wwe network when it comes around.
- http://d Miles
  
  $19.95 in new Zealand which is around $16 us
- craig
  
  would be nice if they (wwe and directv) stopped charging an extra $10 premium for hd ppvs. that is so much bullshit and keeps me from buying and extra ppv a year.
bettysteve

l am soo happy that the dept of homeland security has taken down another terorist, his illegal streaming could have caused a revolution or an attempted coup of the USA. His streaming could have included government secrets, or bomb making plans and such that the department of homeland security was formed to counter. what, no? ahhhh, so, the dept of homeland security was formed to defend copyright and to defend the incomes of honest american corporations. okay, no wonder they are nameless and faceless, and have 72 concentration camps already constructed to house you americans so you can work for them for $50 per week and lower the costs of manufacture to be able to compete with 3rd world wages.
- BollyMexCPhT
  
  Wow!!! Little insane arent we? Gov secrets, bomb plans, etc…. really? Are you clinically insane. This was a streaming site not some terrorist stuff. Besides if you think that the U.S. is only doing this these camps you speak of, I bet there some in your country too bro. Am gonna think like how you think and go as far as every country has their camps set up for people. Insane, isn't? Every government is corrupted, what? You think your government is a "good guy"? HAHAHA!!! You sourly mistaken. Now back to how regular people think. As I was saying, this guy is offering a service for free because the BIG companies want you to pay steep prices for a PPV and thats a bad thing? No, its letting them know "hey your charging way too much, I still support your programming but these prices are insane." So if they wanna minimize illegal streams, well then, lower the prices. Problem?
  - Kayvon
    
    It's called sarcasm, my friend…except for the part about the concentration camps. We do have a lot of them already built and fully operational here in the 'States. FEMA camps is what they are commonly referred to.
    - http://d Miles
      
      What are you in for? Bomb plot, you? Watching wwe ppv online.
  - H.M.
    
    LOL SARCASM DETECTION FAIL.
DBD

Isn’t this because people put where they watched the Royal Rumble in an official WWE survey? How dumb do you have to be to put the stream site you watched it on?
Martin wright

To be honest in in the uk and I pay £15 for almost all of the ppvs and it’s starting to get obsurd when I think raw was better than the rumble
- Mr C
  
  We only pay for 6 in the uk (£15 each) and the rest are FREE lol god bless sky tv
  - @commishg19
    
    There are only 4 free PPVs a year now. Elimination Chamber, Extreme Rules, Money in the Bank and Vengeance were the free ones in 2011 I think, the rest were all on Box Office.
Frenchfry

FFS
magruber

why did we even care about SOPA when the government can do things like this to begin with? just sayin.
search4theyeti

All TV should be free. It all ends up on YouTube anyway. The Internet can never be fully censored to think otherwise is foolish. Btw I watched the rumble and I felt ripped off.
Luan

First Row's website is still up… For me, this kind of website is necessary, as I live in Brazil and don't have the bandwidth to watch the official online stream, so my only alternative is watching the PPVs over lower quality streams.
Blazeking

"an operation to take down 16 websites owned by Quiroa, who is also known as Ronaldo Solano, that linked to other websites that hosted pirated telecasts."

Wouldn't it be more efficient to go after the actual sites the streamed the pirated material?! They arrested a guy who LINKED to it; SOPA style. It's the MegaUpload situation all in a different flavor. He didn't pirate a thing!!!
Chris

Depending on where first row is located determines the tactics used. If they are outside the US, the gov can’t touch them, but they can hurt the advertisers that make money off of them. If they are in the US, you can go after them, but only to a point.