Illegal streaming platforms with 22 million users smashed
Published: Wednesday, Nov 27th 2024, 19:00
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European law enforcement authorities have forced the shutdown of illegal streaming platforms for films, sports and series. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland and the Federal Office of Police as well as authorities in Italy, Croatia, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and the UK were involved in the shutdown.
22 million people worldwide were using the illegal service, as Eurojust, the European Agency for Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters based in The Hague, announced on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the servers hosting the illegal streaming services were confiscated and shut down.
In addition to films and series, over 2500 television channels, including sports channels, were also illegally copied. The alleged perpetrators made a monthly profit of around 250 million euros (approximately 232.9 million Swiss francs). Eurojust estimated the economic damage to copyright holders at 10 billion euros (around 9.3 billion Swiss francs).
More than 100 searches were carried out on 102 suspects in a large-scale operation. Eleven suspects were arrested in Croatia, it was reported. The perpetrators had communicated in encrypted form and used false identities to obtain services such as telephone and television subscriptions and credit cards.
According to the communiqué, the authorities involved worked together on the investigation at the Eurojust headquarters. Europol, the European Police Office, supported the operations.
©Keystone/SDA
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