The Catania Police Headquarters has issued a press release relating to a Maxi Operation conducted by the Postal Police against illegal streaming in Italy called “Operation Black Out” . Obviously, illegal IPTVs were affected.
Numerically speaking, subscriptions of 1.5 million users . According to the Catania Police Headquarters, something like 80% of the illegal flow of IPTV in Italy has been canceled . There are 45 suspects for criminal association aimed at abusive access to the computer system, computer fraud and reproduction and dissemination via the internet of intellectual property.
A round of 'business in short of millions and millions of euros . Subscribers to these services, who paid a monthly subscription fee of around € 10 , had access to a large number of pay-TV content taken from Sky , DAZN , Mediaset , Netflix and other. One of the most important “operating centers” was identified in Messina . Its deactivation and the ensuing seizure meant that the police discovered that about 80% of the illegal IPTV flow in Italy passed through there. Many other Italian cities were however affected by searches relating to the same operation, including Rome, Verona, Pisa, Milan, Catania, Taranto and others.
The complex investigations, carried out by the Catania Postal Police, since the first investigations had highlighted the presence on Telegram , in various social networks networks and in different bot sites , channels, groups , accounts, forums , blogs and profiles advertising the sale , on the national territory, of accesses for illegal streaming of paid content via IPTV of the most popular platforms.
We feel compelled to report as well another specific sentence of the press release issued by the Police Headquarters:
In common opinion it is believed that, after all, benefiting from a pirate system is not a crime, at most a little money is taken away from a communication giant. But if we look at the phenomenon in its complexity, and not only in its single use, we realize that in reality this is not the case, an entire production system is put into crisis.
And in fact it is just like that: there is always that relative, that friend or even a complete stranger on any social network that defends piracy with the sword. We take into consideration that paid services such as Netflix , Prime Video and Sky , in addition to Mediaset obviously and other companies involved, invest in Italy for the creation of “Made in Italy” content then usable on these platforms. There is talk of an entire production system, not just entertainment giants.
