Direct download sites are changing addresses at an accelerating pace each year. In 2023, domain name rotations multiplied to circumvent the blocks imposed by internet service providers, but the authorities’ response has also scaled up. Measuring this acceleration helps to understand why tracking new addresses has become a very different exercise from what it was a few years ago.
Domain Name Blocking by ARCOM: Game-Changing Data
The most significant phenomenon for download sites is not the closure of a particular site, but the increasing power of systematic domain name blocking by ARCOM. The available figures show an exponential curve.
| Year | Blocked Domain Names on Notification | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Starting Reference | – |
| 2024 | 3,797 blocked domain names | +146% compared to 2023 |
| 2025 | Nearly 15,200 targeted domain names | Quadrupled in one year |
This table reflects a change in methodology. ARCOM no longer targets one site at a time: it aims at the domain rotations themselves, that is, the exact mechanism used by Zone Téléchargement and its clones to remain accessible.
Among the thousands of domains blocked in 2025, a significant portion concerns live sports streaming, pirate IPTV, and mirror sites of direct download platforms. Data regarding recent news on Niraj Web particularly detail the case of Extreme Download, whose address changes follow a similar pattern.
Automated Real-Time Blocking: France Adopts the Italian Model
In 2025, France validated a system for automated and real-time blocking of pirate streams, inspired by the Italian Piracy Shield. This mechanism primarily targets illegal sports broadcasts, but its implications extend far beyond the realm of sports.
Blocking can now occur during the broadcast of an event, without waiting for a traditional judicial decision. Internet service providers receive notifications and must cut access to the identified domains within a very short timeframe.
For download sites, the consequence is indirect but real. The technical infrastructure set up to block live sports streams can be extended. The Paris Court has already deployed broad injunctions against piracy, involving multiple intermediaries simultaneously (hosts, registrars, DNS resolvers).
- Third-party DNS resolvers like Cloudflare are now subject to blocking injunctions, following validation by the Council of State
- Multi-intermediary injunctions allow for neutralizing a site across several technical layers at once, not just at the ISP level
- The legal framework is gradually extending beyond sports to encompass all content protected by copyright
Impact on Address Lifespan
Before 2024, a new download site address could remain functional for several weeks, sometimes several months. With mass blocking, the average lifespan of a pirate domain name has drastically decreased.
Mirror site administrators must change domains more frequently, which fragments the user base and reduces service reliability. Users searching for the “new official address” of a site increasingly encounter fraudulent clones or phishing pages.
Download Sites in 2023-2025: What Has Really Changed for Users
The direct download ecosystem has undergone several concrete disruptions between 2023 and 2025. The closure of Uptobox, a file host widely used by French-speaking platforms, has redistributed traffic to other hosting services, often less stable and more saturated with aggressive ads.
The disappearance of a major host has weakened the entire chain. Sites like Zone Téléchargement do not store files themselves: they aggregate links to third-party hosts. When one of these hosts shuts down, thousands of links become dead simultaneously.
Explosion of Clones and Risks to Personal Data
The number of sites claiming to be “the new official address” of Zone Téléchargement or Extreme Download has exploded. Many of these clones have no connection to the original teams and primarily serve to collect user data or distribute malware.
- Some clones replicate the original site’s interface exactly, making it nearly impossible for an unsuspecting user to distinguish between them
- Registration forms on these fake sites collect reused usernames and passwords from other services
- The files offered for download may contain malware bundled with the expected content
Searching for a reliable “official address” has become as much a cybersecurity issue as a question of access to content.
Global Video Piracy in 2023: Disparities Between Countries
The study conducted by MUSO and Kearney on the traffic of video piracy sites in 2023 highlighted marked geographical disparities. Canada stood out as the country where video piracy was progressing the most, while Brazil showed a notable decline thanks to a combination of government actions and accessible legal offers.
In France, piracy remains at a high level despite ARCOM’s measures. The increase in the number of blocks has not yet produced a measurable decrease in overall pirate traffic, suggesting that users are adapting (VPNs, alternative DNS, mirror sites).
Conversely, countries where the legal streaming offer is affordable and diverse tend to see their pirate traffic stagnate or decrease. The price of subscriptions and the fragmentation of the catalog among competing platforms remain the main drivers of illegal downloading.
The shift to automated blocking in France marks a technical turning point, but the fundamental question remains that of the legal offer. Pirate site addresses will continue to change as long as demand exists, and demand will only decrease if paid alternatives better meet user expectations in terms of catalog, price, and availability.