Canal+ Polska fights piracy of new original series

Polish pay TV operator Canal+ Polska said it identified some 2,720 individual sources of piracy involving the first four episodes of its series Żmijowisko being made available illegally for viewing or download, but that it had effectively removed 99% of these. 

The operator identified 62 websites on which rates posted the total 2,720 files and links to watch or download the episodes.

While the majority of sites identified were pirate websites, hosting sites and Torrent networks, Canal+ said that pirates also posted episodes of the series on Chomikuj.pl, a legitimate popular Polish-Language file hosting service. 

Canal+ created a special unit some years ago to address the problem of intellectual property theft, tasked with searching for and removing pirate websites and sources of illicit content as well as combating traditional card-sharing piracy. 

Żmijowisko, which debuted this month, is a Canal+ original, a multi-generation historical saga based on the popular book by Wojciech Chmielarz.