Italy's police take down illegal streaming platforms with millions in revenue

European police authorities have busted an international gang of streaming pirates whose IPTV platforms were visited by more than 22 million users. According to the police, the illegally copied video streams from well-known TV channels and major streaming services generated over 250 million euros per month. However, a large number of websites and servers have now been confiscated and several suspects arrested in Croatia.

This was reported by the Polizia Postale, the special department of the Italian police responsible for cybercrime. The operation, known as "Taken Down", was carried out in cooperation with Europol and Eurojust as well as other European countries and is the biggest strike against streaming pirates both in Italy and internationally. Television piracy is becoming an ever-increasing problem for the media. At the beginning of 2023, for example, it was reported that 5.9 million Germans were watching TV illegally.

Pay TV and streaming services copied and distributed

It is not clear from the Polizia Postale statement which platforms and websites have now been closed and which domains have been used for this purpose. Copied IPTV content, live broadcasts and streaming services from major broadcasters such as Sky, DAZN, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney+ and Paramount were offered there. A total of 2,500 illegal channels and servers were confiscated, including nine servers in Romania and Hong Kong.

"Over 270 Polizia Postale employees, in collaboration with foreign police forces, carried out 89 searches in fifteen Italian regions, including 14 searches in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Croatia and China, involving 102 people," the Italian authority writes about the two-year investigation.

Arrests and crypto seizures in Croatia

International cooperation has also led to the Croatian police being able to take eleven people into custody. "In addition, three higher-level administrators of the investigated IT structure and 80 streaming flow control panels for the various channels (IPTV) available to the suspects throughout the national territory were located in England and Holland," it continues.

In addition to the servers, cryptocurrencies worth over 1.65 million euros and 40,000 euros in cash were seized. According to Polizia Postale, even the monthly income of these streaming pirates of more than 250 million euros is only a small part of the overall damage caused by TV piracy. This is because pay-TV providers complain of losses of 10 billion euros due to illegal streaming.

The arrested suspects are accused of illegal streaming of audiovisual content via IPTV, unauthorized system access, computer fraud and money laundering. Just under a month ago, the Stuttgart Regional Court sentenced pay-TV pirates to long prison terms. The four operators of a large IPTV piracy platform were convicted of serious copyright infringement and gang fraud.

(fds)