International. The football leagues of Germany and Spain, in conjunction with the company Nagra and Nordic Content Protection managed to shut down an illegal IPTV broadcast network based in Spain that served more than two million paying subscribers worldwide.
The closure is the result of criminal complaints and assistance from DFL, LaLiga, NAGRA and Nordic Content Protection to the Spanish police. The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) also participated on behalf of the content industry. The coordinated international law enforcement operation was led by the Spanish National Police with the support of Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, and Eurojust, the European Union's Criminal Justice Cooperation Agency.
The pirate network was offering more than 40,000 video channels and video-on-demand content, offering a wide range of channels, sporting events, movies, documentaries and series, as well as 50 pirate servers located in various countries in Europe. All were shut down as part of the anti-piracy operation.
The piracy network was based in Spain, but operated all over the world: in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States generating profits in excess of 15 million euros and causing much greater damage to the content industry.
Its IPTV service was offered to resellers allowing them to create their own brand and illegal service as a franchise. Arrests were made in several European countries, including Spain, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Sweden. The people were charged with intellectual property crimes, communications fraud, money laundering and criminal organization.
This latest success further illustrates the importance of a close partnership between content owners, operators, technology providers, policy makers and governments, to truly advance the battle against piracy and to protect all legitimate businesses from stakeholders in the media and entertainment industry.
