Super Bowl 2025 will be the most legally watched U.S. broadcast in 2025.

It might also be the most illegally watched one.

That framework is found in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1998. The DMCA became law at a time when many people connected to the Internet through landline phone connections. The DMCA assures content creators that works displayed on the Internet are protected by copyright law. However, the DMCA features several limitations that weaken that protection. One limitation is DMCA’s safe harbor to online service providers (OSPs), including cloud service providers, search engines, and social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook.

In recent years, sports leagues have urged Congress, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the U.S. Copyright Office, among others with authority over intellectual property, to reconsider this model.