Italian authorities have announced the dismantling of a significant streaming piracy network responsible for an estimated loss of €300 million (approximately USD 348 million) to media giants like Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, Sky, and DAZN.
Reported by Reuters, Italy’s financial police disclosed that the operation focused on a newly discovered technology system associated with an app named CINEMAGOAL. This app allowed users to illicitly access decrypted streaming content via foreign servers.
The police revealed that virtual machines, continuously active in Italy, intercepted and rebroadcasted access credentials from legitimate subscriptions held by fictitious account holders every three minutes.
Investigators highlighted that the system was engineered to circumvent security protocols of streaming platforms, operating without identifiable IP addresses. This approach made it challenging for authorities and companies to trace users. The illegal service subscriptions were allegedly sold for annual fees ranging from €40 to €130.
Prosecutors in Bologna, in collaboration with Eurojust, managed to seize foreign servers housing decryption data and the application’s source code. Simultaneous enforcement operations took place in France and Germany.
Additionally, authorities uncovered the utilization of traditional illegal streaming devices known as “pezzotto” in Italy. Around 1,000 users identified in the investigation may face fines between €154 and €5,000, as indicated in the Reuters report.
