Spanish Police take down pirate service
The Spanish National Police (Policía
Nacional) has dismantled a large
criminal network illegally distributing
audio-visual content in Europe, Asia and
the Middle East and laundering the criminal
proceeds.
The investigation, supported by
Europol and Eurojust, also involved
law enforcement authorities from
Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France,
Italy, Germany, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Poland, Romania,
Sweden, the United Kingdom, and
the United States.
At the beginning of June 2020,
law enforcement authorities
across the EU carried out 15 house
searches, arrested 11 individuals
(four in Spain, one in Germany,
three in Sweden, three in Denmark)
and interrogated 16 others for their
possible involvement in the illegal
scheme.
The suspected leader of the
criminal network is among those
arrested. The raids resulted in the seizure of
€4.8m, including properties worth more than
€2m, four cars worth about half a million
euros, luxury watches, cash, cryptocurrencies
and electronic equipment. Law enforcement
The criminals
were offering
illegally more
than 40,000 TV
channels, movies,
documentaries
and other digital
content
authorities
took down 50
IP addresses
and part of the
online criminal
infrastructure
while 11 bank
accounts
totalling €1.1m
were also
frozen.
The
investigation into the activities of the criminal
network started in 2019 when the Policía
Nacional detected several websites illegally
distributing audio-visual content in different
countries across Europe, Asia and the Middle
East. The distribution of the illegal services, in
breach with intellectual property rights, was
set up via Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)
and managed from Spain.
A ‘coalition’ of La Liga, the Alliance
for Creativity and Entertainment, Nordic
Content, NAGRA and the Bundesliga (DFL),
legitimate holder of the rights to audiovisual
content offered fraudulently, supported the
investigation.
The criminals were offering illegally
more than 40,000 TV channels, movies,
documentaries and other digital content via
websites hosted on an international network of
servers. The illegal service was made available
through an attractive web environment at
prices much more competitive than the ones
on the legal market.
The criminal network had even put in place
a sophisticated technical assistance and quality
control through their own customer support
online platform. More than two million
subscribers were receiving these illegal services
bringing profits at an estimated €15m. The
investigation focused on shutting down the
servers and disconnecting the IP addresses.
According to Europol, this is a first example
of the synergies created by the merger of
different teams comprised of economic and
financial experts under the new European
Financial and Economic Crime Centre recently
created at Europol.
“We are grateful to the Spanish National
Police and all involved in this operation for
working together to protect and defend content
owner rights,” said Melcior Soler, audiovisual
director at LaLiga. “Piracy is a global problem
and it’s critical for the industry as whole to
come together to fight it, share knowledge
and leverage key partnerships and anti-piracy
technologies to preserve high-quality content
for our fans – whether it’s in sports or other
types of entertainment. Together we can make
a difference and alter the piracy landscape.”
“The DFL welcomes this transnational
anti-piracy operation that comes at the same
time major European championships resume
their activities, added Dr Holger Blask,
director audiovisual rights at DFL. “Tackling
large pirate operations at the source is a key
component in the fight against large-scale
content theft. We are glad the industry is more
and more united against piracy, in this case
both the sports and the content industries
joined efforts to make it happen”.
“We applaud the Spanish National
Police for leading this anti-piracy effort to
a successful outcome,” commented Pascal
Métral, VP legal affairs and head of anti-piracy
investigations, intelligence and litigation at
NAGRA. “These results could not have been
achieved without close collaboration between
all stakeholders – content
owners, governmental entities
and anti-piracy companies –
and is a clear demonstration of
how such efforts can have a real
impact on stopping the spread of
commercial piracy.
All parties say this latest
success further illustrates the
importance of a close partnership
between content owners,
operators, technology providers,
policy makers and governments,
to make real strides in the battle
against piracy and to protect all
media and entertainment industry
stakeholders’ legitimate business.
Ofcom: Social video app usage
surges in lockdown
UK adults spent a quarter of their waking
day online during lockdown – a record
high – according to research from
Ofcom.
During April, adults spent an average
of four hours a day online, up from
three-and-a-half on September 2019, the
communications watchdog reported.
Seven in 10 people made video calls
at least once a week during lockdown
with Zoom, WhatsApp and Facebook
Messenger apps used the most.
Meanwhile, Twitch, the livestreaming
platform for gamers, saw visitors
increase from 2.3m in January to 4.2m
in April. TikTok, which allows users to
create and share short videos, reached
12.9m UK visitors in April, up from 5.4m
in January.
The research also shows that people
are no longer just passive consumers,
with two in five adults uploading videos
to TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat or
Instagram.
“Lockdown may leave a lasting digital
legacy,” suggests Yih-Choung The,
Ofcom’s director of strategy and research.
“Coronavirus has radically changed the way
we live, work and communicate online,
with millions of people using online video
services for the first time.”
EUROMEDIA 9