While the debate continues on the new law against IPTV to watch football for free, Italy and the rest of the European Union countries continue to fight against piracy in the “traditional” way: with the arrest managers of these services. In Europe, prison sentences have already been handed down for the sale of IPTV decoders allowing access to illegal broadcasts, but this is not the only method used by criminals.
The latest operation ordered by the Guardia Di Finanza, the Italian tax police, is a good demonstration of the evolution of methods of access to pirate streaming. The objective of the operation was the identification of four people, including the alleged leader of the plot, thanks to which the court was able to order the seizure of your propertyincluding five properties and two vehicles. Although their arrest has not been confirmed, they are accused of intellectual property violation and money laundering.
Perhaps the most surprising detail of this plot is how the distribution of pirated content managed by the alleged criminals operated; they used a resale systemthrough which participants could buy access to large streaming platforms and resell it to their customers, thus obtaining a significant profit.
Whether by contacting suppliers directly or through an acquaintance, sellers obtained “credits” en masse; each credit equals one month of viewingand it costs less than the officially obtained subscription to any of the included services.
This pirate service offered access to the content of legal platforms, via an encrypted page accessible only to users who had purchased “credits” from resellers. Among the services accessible via the page were Netflix and DAZN, as well as Sky and Mediaset TV channelsso in theory, customers could also watch football matches broadcast by authorized channels. Based on the number of credits earned, retailers could assign each user what content they could view and for how long via an on-page control panel.
The big risk for resellers in a project like this is that they have to expose themselves to the public to sell access to the platform; As a result, police discovered that dealers did not accept transfers or easily traceable payments, and that cash was too impractical in large quantities. The dealers’ solution was only accepts prepaid cards from Postepay, the Italian postal service.
Concretely, to buy credits, users had to recharge Postepay cards from resellers; Postepay is a service that does not require a current account but whose card can be used in all types of stores, both at ATMs and online, and withdraw money from ATMs. However, the resellers did not take into account that to use the service it is necessary to register at the post office with a telephone number; Police say that thanks to this they were able to trace payments made to the illegal service.
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Police also confirmed that work to identify those involved continues, including those responsible for the distribution; and you may also be looking a list of subscribers to the service. Thanks to the new anti-piracy law, it is illegal in Italy to consume pirated content, and fines for watching pirated IPTV can reach 5,000 dollars; Although the system is not yet launched, if the police have obtained a list of customers of this service, these people will likely be among the first to receive the fine.
