Italy takes down international TV piracy network with 22 million users
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The network allegedly had an estimated illegal turnover of over €250 million (S$350 million) a month, hurting the revenue of pay TV companies to the tune of €10 billion, police said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MILAN - Italian police said on Nov 27 they had dismantled the most widespread transnational criminal video piracy network, which had over 22 million users in Italy and Europe.
The network allegedly had an estimated illegal turnover of over €250 million (S$350 million) a month, hurting the revenue of pay TV companies to the tune of €10 billion, Italian police in the Sicilian town of Catania said.
They said 270 officers had carried out 89 searches in 15 Italian regions.
“Operation Takedown” was coordinated with the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) and Europol, with the help of several European police forces.
Another 14 searches were made in Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania and Croatia, leading to 11 arrests, Italian authorities said in a press conference in Catania.
The suspects are likely to be charged with copyright infringement, abusive access to computer systems, possession of access codes, and computer fraud.
The affected companies include Sky, Dazn, Mediaset, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Paramount and Disney+, investigators said, according to the newspaper Corriere della Sera. REUTERS
