Police put 80% pirate streaming out of use in Italy

[Chewy_fox]

More than 1.5 subscribers with the “pezzotto” were left without services to illegally watch pay TV broadcasts. Postal operation throughout Italy

Since last week the “pezzotto” does not work more in the houses beyond 1.5 million Italians. Digital piracy conveyed via streaming, and specifically IPTV, has suffered an unprecedented blow in these hours. With the’Operation Black Out, launched in recent days, more than 200 specialists from eleven regional compartments of the Police post in eighteen provinces they dismantled a “complex criminal infrastructure, both from an organizational and technological point of view“. In practice, as reported by the Police, “it is state cleared 80% of the illegal flow of Ip tv in Italy“

A national pirate streaming network

The Postal and Communications Police had spotted one several months ago technological infrastructure operating at national level, responsible for dissemination through various sites “of the illegally captured signal of numerous pay-TV content platforms“, including Sky, Dazn, Mediaset, Netflix. At that point the Catania District Prosecutor opened a file and coordinated the investigations by delegating all operational actions to the police.

The unit of Catania, with the coordination of the Postal and Communications Police Service of Rome, after months has identified the sources of the pirate stream and consequently began to compose the picture of the suspects. The plant, responsible for about 80% of the illegal IP TV flow in Italy, was identified in Messina.

After that, the investigators reconstructed a pyramid scheme where, however, many members did not know each other personally. In the face of 45 suspects Many searches were carried out throughout Italy: Rome (15), Catania (6), Messina (5), Syracuse (1), Bari (1), Taranto (2), Fermo (1), Verona (1), Palermo (1), Agrigento (1), Naples (2), Caserta (3), Salerno (1), Pisa (1), Pistoia (1), Milan (1), Potenza (1) and Cagliari (1).

The agents, during the searches, seized a large amount of illegal computer material, servers and devices “used for streaming connections and broadcasting activities“. In some cases, cash was also seized for tens of thousands of euros “deemed to be the proceeds of the illegal activity“, Reads the note released by the investigators.

Part of the seized decoders

The system

The police have discovered a real criminal association based on a proven model. First the leaders of the association (called Sources) proceeded with the lawful purchase of services and then the signal, then the “transformation into computer data […] conveyed in audio / video streams“. Finally, the flows were transmitted through “a dense criminal framework to one capillary network of dealers and end users, equipped with home internet connection and equipment suitable for reception“. In practice, the fruition at home took place with the known “pezzotto”, a sort of Android-based multimedia device to be connected to the internet and television.

The pirated streaming service was advertised on Telegram (as in the past), in various social networks and in various bot sites, channels, groups, accounts, forums and blogs. Obviously, the main paid streaming or satellite services at bargain prices ended up in the spotlight. Net of the computer investigations, the police also analyzed documents, banking information and also proceeded to stalking.

The crimes

The prosecutor in charge of the investigations and of the team specialized in computer crimes contested the crime of criminal association aimed at committing the crimes of aunauthorized access to a computer system protected by security measures (article 615 ter aggravated by the criminal code), computer fraud aggravated by the enormous damage caused (article 640 ter) and illegal reproduction and dissemination via the internet of works protected by copyright and intellectual property (article 171 ter law, number 633/1941).

It should be remembered that the police have detected 1.5 million pirate subscribers, which with a monthly outlay of about 10 euros, they fed “a turnover for crime amounting to 15 million euros per month“. Not to mention the alleged loss of income for pay TV service providers

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