CATANIA – The beating heart of pirate streaming in Italy has been dismantled with a raid that led to the arrest of eight individuals believed to be at the helm of a criminal organization that controlled 70% of the country's illegal pay-TV market. The operation, coordinated by the Catania Public Prosecutor's Office and conducted by the Catania Cyber Security Operations Center together with the Rome Postal Police, represents the follow-up to the 2022 "Gotha" investigation.
According to the prosecution, the group – with branches in Catania, Rome, Syracuse, Brescia and abroad – distributed live programming and on-demand content from platforms such as Sky to over 900 thousand users, Dazn, Mediaset, Amazon Prime and Netflix through a pirate IPTV system with names that recalled the legal ones, such as “Unity”, “PlayTv” and “Luckystreaming”.
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The suspects, charged with criminal conspiracy, computer fraud, and unauthorized access to computer systems, allegedly managed the entire business chain: from subscription prices to device distribution, to the suspension of services. To evade controls, they used servers rented abroad, encrypted chats, false documents, and fictitious identities.
"We struck at the top of a well-structured criminal network that profited from digital piracy," commented the Catania prosecutor. The operation marked a severe blow to cybercrime, which has been damaging broadcasters and honest users for years.
Comments (1)
It's interesting how the police carried out this operation, but I wonder if it's really the solution to the piracy problem. It seems like every time people are arrested, new organizations emerge. Will it be a never-ending cycle?