Until not so long ago, IPTV represented a very small niche, a technology used by some companies to broadcast videos on the Internet and which had little impact on the consumption of pirated content, distributed mainly by downloading. direct. IPTV TVs for watching pirated football are gaining popularity and pirated consumer consumption has changed.
This growing popularity has prompted new laws against IPTV and police operations against those responsible. Today, Italian police announced the largest such operation to date, in which they participated Europol, Eurojust and the security forces of seven countries further away. The result was the arrest of 11 suspects and another 102 people were investigated, whose participation in the conspiracy has not yet been made public.
270 Italian postal police officers participated in the operation, carrying out 89 searches in 15 regions of Italy; In addition, 14 registries have been organized in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Croatia and China. In fact, arrests were made in Croatia, where the suspects apparently had their base of operations. The operation, called “Disassembled”, lasted two years And this was possible despite the suspects' use of encrypted communications applications, false identities and false documents.
Although police did not give the name of the IPTV service that those arrested operated, they confirmed that it was focused on offering pirated content from TV and streaming services. By accessing the platform, users could watch live broadcasts from TV channels, in addition to accessing on-demand content from platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Sky, DAZN and rights holders such as Mediaset and Paramount.
This content was accessible through “many web pages”which broadcasts live videos via IPTV; Everything therefore indicates that this service did not sell devices configured to access the platform. In total, authorities seized 2,500 illegal IPTV channels and servers used to transmit pirated content in Europe, as well as servers in Hong Kong.
The police say that those responsible for this service obtained income of 250 million dollars per monthindicating that it is one of the largest pirate platforms closed to date. Officers confiscated 40,000 dollars in cash, as well as virtual wallets containing cryptocurrencies worth 1.65 million dollars.
According to the police, the platform was resold through different distribution channels and an extensive network of sellers, through which it obtained 22 million registered users. Those arrested now face various charges, relating not only to intellectual property infringement, but also to fraud, unauthorized access and money laundering. The police estimate the damage at 10 billion dollars.
