The authors conducted the first large-scale study of video piracy on Telegram, analyzing 1,057 channels that posted 209k posts over two years. They found a massive, deliberately resilient ecosystem: 19,033 unique pirated titles from 175 countries, 4.85 billion views, and an estimated $17.49 billion in losses to rights holders. The system is engineered to resist takedowns through chains of intermediary channels and automated bots that handle hosting, access control, and monetization. The authors built Anti-RIP, a real-time detection framework using a taxonomy of piracy channel behaviors, which helped take down 524 previously unknown channels and 71 bots in 61 days.
Main takeaways:
- Telegram hosts industrial-scale video piracy with billions of views and multi-billion-dollar estimated losses
- The ecosystem uses automated bots and intermediary channels to route around takedowns
- 19,033 unique copyrighted titles from 175 countries were distributed
- Anti-RIP detection framework uses a behavioral taxonomy to identify piracy channels in real-time
- In 61 days, Anti-RIP facilitated takedown of 524 channels and 71 bots