With the 2014 Winter Olympics looming and billions of dollars on the line for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and network cables, it seems natural that stakeholders will be making a focused effort to curb piracy of the events. The IOC is going to great lengths to prevent illegal streaming and torrents made available on sites such as The Pirate Bay, even going as far as to ask the Sochi organizing committee to form a ‘rapid-response team’ that would immediately removed illegal streams and torrents in minutes.

Russian publication Gazeta obtained a letter from the IOC to the Russian government and Olympic organizing committee where the IOC expressed their interest in creating a list of blacklisted sites and streams which would be automatically be removed. Rumors have indicated that they’re also seeking assistance from the Russian government to carry out punishments for those who refuse to comply with takedowns, although the Ministry of Communications in Russia has denied that they even received a letter from the IOC.

Roskomnadzor, the federal body responsible for overseeing compliance of all media and communications with the law has also not seen the letter. Legal changes would have been made if they decide to adhere to the requests of the IOC as they can only remove illegal material within 72 hours.

via TorrentFreak