Nov 28, 2024 12:05:00

A pirate streaming service that had more than 22 million viewers worldwide and earned 400 billion yen a month will be dismantled in an international operation

The Italian Postal and Telecommunications Police announced on November 27, 2024 that an international law enforcement operation involving

Europol and Eurojust had dismantled the pirate streaming service, which served more than 22 million users worldwide.

Polizia Postale: COMUNICATO STAMPA: OPERAZIONE 'TAKEN DOWN'
https://www.commissariatodips.it/notizie/articolo/comunicato-stampa-operazione-taken-down/index.html

Police bust pirate streaming service making €250 million per month
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/police-bust-pirate-streaming-service-making-250-million-per-month/

€3bn Pirate IPTV Network Serving 22m Users 'Dismantled' in Massive Operation * TorrentFreak
https://torrentfreak.com/e3bn-pirate-iptv-network-serving-22m-users-dismantled-in-massive-operation-241127/

A team of investigators led by the Italian Prosecutor's Office of Catania has been investigating one of the biggest pirate streaming services for over two years, including monitoring various social media platforms, identifying servers used for illegal streaming, tracking senior managers and the control panels of the various channels.

The service illegally streamed copyrighted programs, live broadcasts, and on-demand content from services such as DAZN, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, Paramount+, and Sky. It has more than 22 million users worldwide and generates revenues of 250 million euros (approximately 40 billion yen) per month. It is estimated that the financial losses suffered by legitimate platforms due to the existence of this pirated service reach 10 billion euros (approximately 1.6 trillion yen) per year.

The multinational organization that operated the service had a computer network distributed across several countries and was structured according to a top-down organizational model. Fake IDs and forged documents were used to register phones, obtain credit cards, rent servers, etc., but investigators were able to identify the suspects from the various profiles used to monitor forums and advertise the service.

Following a two-year investigation, an international team of law enforcement agencies carried out targeted searches and seizures. The operation, named 'TAKEN DOWN', included 89 searches across 15 regions in Italy, as well as 14 searches involving 102 individuals in the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Croatia and China.

The operation resulted in the arrest of at least 11 suspects and the seizure of over 2,500 illicit channels and servers, as well as a reported 1.65 million euros worth of cryptocurrency and 40,000 euros in cash.

'We would like to thank the Catania Public Prosecutor's Office, the Postal and Telecommunications Police, Europol and the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA) and are proud to have collaborated in this extraordinary operation,' said Andrea Duilio, CEO of Sky Italia , which filed the initial complaint and sparked the investigation.