ONE of the world’s biggest illegal streaming networks alleged to show thousands of premium channels at a cut price has been shut down.
It’s claimed the sites hosted movies, TV series and 2,500 channels such as Sky Sports.
A huge police operation spanning several countries across Europe searched more than a hundred houses.
Five addresses in the UK were raided as part of the latest effort against piracy.
Law enforcement, with support by Europol and Eurojust, identified 102 suspects throughout Europe and 11 people were arrested.
At least 29 servers were seized along with around 270 pieces of IPTV equipment allegedly used to facilitate the operation.
A hundred domains have been taken offline as a result.
“This sends a strong message that, alongside our partners, we are committed to dismantling pirate networks across borders and holding their ringleaders accountable,” said Matt Hibbert, Group Director of Anti-Piracy at Sky.
“We will continue supporting efforts to end digital piracy and protect consumers from the risks of these illegal services.”
The network is thought to have made more than £208million in revenue per month.
Police took around £1.3million in cryptocurrency and £33,000 in cash from properties associated with the scheme, as well as various drugs and weapons.
UK police worked with counterparts from Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland to bring down the sites.
The biggest part of the police operation was carried out in Italy, where 270 officers searched 89 properties in 15 Italian regions.
Mark Mulready, co-president of the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA) – whose members include Sky and the Premier League – warned: “We will continue to closely collaborate with law enforcement agencies in Europe and beyond to enable them to successfully identify, investigate and prosecute large-scale cross-border pirate networks.”
Police have carried out a number of raids in recent years in a bid to bring an end to illegal streaming networks.
In July, one of the UK’s biggest illegal streaming crackdowns by police and IP protection organisation FACT took place, leading to 40 illegal streaming operators being stung with warnings.
Figures from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) show that the annual loss to the economy through counterfeiting and piracy is £9billion.
An expert recently told The Sun that cyber criminals can use jailbroken streaming gadgets to break into your Wi-Fi and then onto other electronic devices on the same network.
Illegal streaming can be delivered by a number of devices by one of the most common are 'jailbroken' Fire Sticks, which means a third-party media server software has been installed on to it.
The software most commonly used is called Kodi.
It can grant users unrestricted access to new features and apps the normal version of the device wouldn’t allow – but it is not legal to use in the UK.
But it becomes illegal when a box is used to stream subscription channels for free.
It is also illegal to buy or sell these modified devices which have become known as “fully-loaded” – a term that describes how the software has been altered to allow access to subscription-only channels.
“These devices are legal when used to watch legitimate, free to air, content,” the government said at the time.
“They become illegal once they are adapted to stream illicit content, for example TV programmes, films and subscription sports channels without paying the appropriate subscriptions.”
