Aug 12, 2019
P2P inside the player: when viewers share the stream without knowing
Watching a stream on some sites also means helping to deliver it.
In short: peer-assisted delivery lets a browser player fetch pieces of a video from other viewers as well as from a server. Pirate sites use it to cut bandwidth costs. Most visitors do not know their connection is being used to pass the video on.
How it works
The player opens connections to other people watching the same video, usually through browser features built for real-time communication. Each viewer downloads pieces and shares them on, while a server fills the gaps.
Why it matters
- The site needs less bandwidth, so it is cheaper to run and harder to pressure through its providers.
- The video still comes from a source file or stream somewhere, which is what a notice should target.
- Visitors may be distributing copyrighted material without realising it.
What to do
Identify the source the player loads first, report it to its host, and report the page to the site and to search engines. The P2P layer stops working once the source is gone.
Related service: Piracy monitoring.