One prediction that always sticks, year after year, is that content piracy will exacerbate and evolve. 2026 is no exception, even as technology and enforcement measures improve. Organized crime groups are becoming more sophisticated with closed IPTV services and automated content scraping tools. At their disposal are AI agents capable of broadening the scope of piracy while simultaneously making illicit activities harder to trace. Then, of course, there is the trend of fragmenting sports and entertainment rights pushing casual viewers towards the temptress of pirated sources. But against this ominous backdrop, anti-piracy specialist Friend MTS has put its neck on the line by predicting that 2026 will be the year when the world wakes up to video piracy as a serious organized crime akin to drug smugglers, human traffickers, and…