Pirate streaming with apps and virtual machines: 100 raids, €300 million damage
The Ravenna Financial Police conducted 100 raids across Italy in the 'Tutto chiaro' operation against audiovisual piracy on Sky, Dazn, Netflix and other platforms.
Operation 'Tutto chiaro': dismantled pirate streaming network using novel technology
Virtual machines operating 24 hours a day, an application called Cinemagoal installed on users' devices and payments in cryptocurrency: this is the audiovisual piracy system discovered by the Ravenna Financial Police, coordinated by the Bologna Prosecutor's Office. ANSA Cronaca reports.
As part of operation 'Tutto chiaro', the Financial Police conducted 100 raids and seizures across the country, targeting the unlawful distribution of subscriptions to Sky, Dazn, Netflix, Disney+ and Spotify.
According to the Financial Police's explanation, the mechanism exploited virtual machines that every three minutes captured and retransmitted the original codes of regular subscriptions registered under fictitious names, sending the signal in clear to end users. The Cinemagoal application connected customers' devices to a foreign server to decrypt the content, circumventing security blocks and reducing the risk of interception by control systems.
The investigation, which began from monitoring on social networks, made it possible to identify more than 70 distributors of the service across the territory. These distributors collected annual subscriptions at prices ranging between €40 and €130 depending on the packages, receiving payments via cryptocurrency or foreign accounts registered under proxy names. The resellers subsequently passed part of the proceeds to the organisers of the fraud.
In cooperation with Eurojust for the coordination of operations in France and Germany, the seizure was ordered of the foreign IT media containing the data for decoding protected audiovisual signals and the source code of the Cinemagoal programme.
The offences charged are audiovisual piracy, unauthorised access to computer systems and computer fraud. The estimated damage to the companies holding the rights amounts to approximately €300 million. Penalties will also be notified to the first 1,000 subscribers identified, with amounts varying between €154 and €5,000.
Source: ANSA Cronaca