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      Police Raid Pirate IPTV Provider Offering Sky TV, Seized Material “Identifies Users”

      news.movim.eu / TorrentFreak · Monday, 16 October - 18:43 · 2 minutes

    gdf-iptv-bust-2 The Italian government, lawmakers, telecoms regulator AGCOM, broadcasters, and football leagues invested considerable resources to get new law over the finishing line in July.

    While one aspect of the law focuses on blocking access to pirate services , another ramps up punishments for those caught supplying illegal streams and customers who buy subscriptions to watch them.

    Financial Police Raid Pirate IPTV Provider

    In what may be the first major action following the introduction of the new law, Italy’s Guardia di Finanza (GdF) says it has shut down an IPTV provider in the southern Italian town of Canosa di Puglia.

    “The financiers of the Barletta Group, as part of an initiative dedicated to combating television piracy, following extensive investigative activity, discovered an illegal transmission center for the channels of the SKY platform,” GdF (Financial Police) reports.

    After being named in connection with similar operations in 2022, investigators of the Fiamme Gialle are also credited here for the discovery of a server room in Canosa.

    Equipment Seized

    According to GdF, the Barletta Provincial Command investigators’ work led to a raid and the discovery of five high-powered computers, 33 decoders used to acquire the original broadcasts, plus 12 video encoders used at the rebroadcasting stage.

    Aside from computers, a maze of cables, and nine power adaptors perilously plugged into a single mains power extension, one of the images provided by GdF reveals a monitor displaying a purple interface. Once zoomed in, the image offers more detail on how the service operated.

    The text and interface in the image suggest that the sources of at least some original streams were satellite broadcasts decoded on-site using relatively cheap receivers configured for card-sharing (CCCAM).

    The image below is not associated with the raid but shows the interface of a similar decoder when connected to a card-sharing server; the one in the police image has been disconnected.

    In the police image the name of the card-sharing provider is in view but too blurry for positive identification at the resolution available.

    The decoders, on the other hand, appear to be GT Media V8 devices, most of which have the protective film still in place. They’re inexpensive and widely available.

    Equipment Was Fully Operational

    Whether the suspect was taken by surprise or busy elsewhere isn’t made clear, but GdF says the equipment was fully operational when officers arrived.

    “The equipment identified, functioning and operational at the time of the Financiers’ access, was used to illicitly transmit the pay TV contents to thousands of users, who are currently being identified,” GdF says.

    The operator has been reported for copyright violations and if found guilty will face enhanced penalties under the new law. Police are suggesting that the provider’s customers may also face action; thanks to “seized materials it will be possible to identify the names of the end users and evaluate any proceedings against them,” GdF notes.

    Italy has a lot of experience prosecuting suppliers but much less on the consumer side. For members of the casually-pirating public reliant on the media for information and guidance, legal detail and nuance tend to be lacking. As a result, the next few months could present a very steep learning curve for the less tech-savvy.

    For those who signed up to the service with their real name, accurate contact details, and/or easily traceable payment methods, regret is likely to follow if the authorities take action.

    From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

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      Pirate IPTV: Police Target 13 Suspects, Seize 620K Euros in Cash/Crypto

      news.movim.eu / TorrentFreak · Friday, 23 June, 2023 - 08:42 · 1 minute

    crypto-invest Italian authorities are reporting that officers of the Special Privacy Protection and Technological Fraud Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Rome have carried out a new operation against pirate IPTV.

    Acting on a decree issued by the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Milan, 12 Italian nationals and one person of Albanian origins, living in several regions of Italy and Germany, were targeted on suspicion of operating social media channels dedicated to pirate IPTV subscription sales/resales.

    While the announcement itself offers no specifics in respect of the suspects’ locations, a police video published today contains a slide showing maps of Italy and Germany and various marked locations.

    “In Frankfurt, Germany, the operations were conducted against two Italian subjects, through international judicial cooperation channels coordinated by Eurojust with the collaboration of the State Police of Hesse – Police Headquarters of Frankfurt – through a European Investigation Order issued by the Judicial Authority of Milan,” the announcement reads.

    620K Euros in Cash/Crypto Seized, 60 Telegram Channels Shut Down

    Police say that the decree issued by the Public Prosecutor allowed them to shut down 60 resources/channels on Telegram and a website used to sell the subscriptions. None of these channels were mentioned by name, so trying to confirm shutdowns or otherwise is impossible.

    impero-iptv However, police did reveal that the organizers used a Telegram channel called ‘Impero IPTV’ (Empire IPTV) as a meeting point.

    While we can’t rule out the police having another channel in mind, as far as we can see the Impero IPTV channel hasn’t been shut down and still has almost 250 members. Whether any have any cash to hand is up for debate.

    Police say that a detailed investigation allowed financial experts to identify accounts opened by the suspects on digital payment portals, money transfer services, and cryptocurrency exchanges. As a result they were able to seize assets worth over 620,000 euros.

    “It should be noted that the criminal proceedings still concern the preliminary investigation phase and that the responsibility of the suspects will be definitively ascertained only in the event of an irrevocable sentence of conviction,” police conclude.

    From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

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      Police Tracked Traffic of All National ISPs to Catch Pirate IPTV Users

      news.movim.eu / TorrentFreak · Monday, 21 November, 2022 - 10:09 · 3 minutes

    bees Over the past two decades, pirate sites and services frequented by millions of users have been shut down following legal action. No longer useful for spreading files, many were repurposed to spread fear.

    In the wake of Hollywood’s 2005 win at the U.S. Supreme Court, the website of file-sharing service Grokster was transformed into a personalized warning. Anyone visiting the site saw their own IP address alongside a message claiming it had been logged. “Don’t think you can’t get caught. You are not anonymous,” the message added.

    Variations on this theme have since appeared on dozens of platforms, most famously via an MPA campaign that declared “You can click but you can’t hide.” These messages were designed to instill fear and uncertainty but didn’t lead to any notable action against those who viewed them. Until now, at least.

    Italy’s War on IPTV Pirates Hits The Streets

    Most top-tier copyright holders avoid targeting consumer-level pirates, mainly because the optics aren’t great. No matter how carefully targets are chosen, suing someone’s grandma is terrible PR and even when things go smoothly, results are limited.

    Today’s general consensus is that hitting site operators is much more effective but whenever the opportunity appears, undermining user confidence should be part of the strategy. Italian police have been following the same model by shutting down pirate IPTV services ( 1 , 2 , 3 ) and warning users they’re up next.

    No Bluff: Police Tracked IPTV Subscribers

    Letters recently sent to homes in Italy reveal that police were not bluffing. A copy letter obtained by Iilsole24ore identifies the send as the Nucleo Speciale Tutela Privacy e Frodi Tecnologiche , a Guardia di Finanza unit specializing in IT-related crime. It refers to an anti-IPTV police operation in May.

    The operation targeted around 500 pirate IPTV resources including websites and Telegram channels. At the time, police also reported that 310+ pieces of IPTV infrastructure, including primary and balancing servers distributing illegal streams, were taken offline.

    Police also claimed that a tracking system made it possible to identify the users of the pirate streams. The letter suggests extraordinary and potentially unprecedented tactics.

    “Italy’s ISPs Redirected National Traffic”

    The letters state that Italian authorities were able to track the IPTV users by “arranging for the redirection of all Internet service providers’ national connections” so that subscribers placed their orders on a police-controlled server configured to record their activity.

    In comments to Iilsole24ore, Gian Luca Berruti, head of investigations at the Guardia di Finanza, describes the operation as “decisive” in the fight against cybercrime. Currently deployed to Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency, Berruti references “innovative investigative techniques” supported by “new technological tools.”

    Technical details are not being made public, but it’s claimed that IPTV users were tracked by “tracing of all connections to pirate sites (IPs) combined, in real-time,” and “cross-referencing telematic information with that derived from the payment mechanisms used.”

    The police operation in May was codenamed Operazione:Dottor Pezzotto . A Telegram channel with exactly the same branding suffered a traffic collapse at exactly the same time.

    IPTV Subscribers Must Pay a Fine

    Finding out exactly what techniques the police used in May will take time but at face value seem more suited to terrorists than people looking for cheap streams. The fine amounts are baffling too, especially given the extraordinary effort to track IPTV users down.

    The letters refer to an administrative copyright infringement fine of just 154 euros or “in case of recidivism” a total of 1,032 euros. However, if people pay their fines within 60 days, the amounts are reduced to 51 euros and 344 euros respectively.

    “It is important to raise awareness of all citizens, especially young people, on this issue and make them understand that financing this business means financing organized crime. We must protect the healthy economy and companies that respect the rules,” Berruti says.

    Around 1,600 people are believed to have been targeted in this first wave of letters but according to Andrea Duillo, CEO of Sky Italia, this is just the start.

    “These first fines show that it is doubly dangerous to use pirated services, because not only do you hand over your personal data to criminal organizations, but you also commit an offense for which you are fined and prosecuted,” Duillo concludes.

    A redacted copy of the letter can be found here ( pdf )

    From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

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      6,500 IPTV Pirates Identified After Accessing Police-Controlled Service

      news.movim.eu / TorrentFreak · Sunday, 29 May, 2022 - 18:09 · 4 minutes

    bees For the past several years, authorities in Italy have regularly announced operations that aimed to disrupt the supply and use of pirate IPTV services.

    After a series of similar actions, in 2021 it was claimed that ‘ Operation Black Out ‘ had shut down a network responsible for around 80% of the illegal supply in the country. This January, another operation led to the claimed dismantling of a network servicing 500,000 customers.

    These reported successes may have disrupted supply but rightsholders are still unhappy. Last week, CEO of football league Serie A blamed IPTV pirates for a 300 million euro black hole in revenues, something that may have played a role in Italian authorities conducting a new crackdown with an unusual component.

    New Guardia di Finanza Operation

    The special technology fraud unit of the Guardia di Finanza (GdF), a law enforcement agency under the authority of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, is reported to have carried out a new operation as football fans prepared for the end of the Serie A football championship.

    In addition to either blocking or seizing sites and servers relating to the sale and distribution of pirate IPTV services, police also took the opportunity to give thousands of pirates an unwelcome surprise.

    “In anticipation of the last day of the Serie A football championship and the Conference League final, the IT specialists of the Fiamme Gialle have registered hundreds of new services and resources dedicated to the sale of IPTV activities through illegal streaming,” a GdF statement reads.

    The Gruppi Sportivi Fiamme Gialle is the sports division of the Italian police force, with team members competing in athletics, rowing, skiing and other sports including judo and karate. In this instance, however, they were lying in wait as IPTV pirates scooped up an enticing offer.

    ‘Applicazione Ufficiale’

    The ‘Official Application’ subscription package offered every regular TV channel and subscription TV service at the “ridiculously low price” of six euros and promised access on devices including TVs, phones, tablets, and computers. Police say it was advertised on Telegram channels, some with as many as 20,000 users, with a free trial and guaranteed anonymity to put subscribers at ease.

    Meanwhile, GdF officers were engaged in parallel IPTV disruption activities. They say more than 500 web resources relating to pirate IPTV were seized or blocked, including over 150 websites and 40 Telegram channels. In addition, 310+ pieces of IPTV infrastructure, including primary and balancing servers distributing illegal streams, were taken offline.

    Italian police don’t go into specifics so the precise mechanism of what came next is unclear. However, the suggestion is that through seized IPTV infrastructure, police were able to track people who tried to access illegal streams via ‘Applicazione Ufficiale’ subscriptions.

    “In fact, a real tracking system was implemented which made it possible to identify the users of the pirate streams. Anyone who tried to connect to the pirated service was immediately redirected to a special information panel that warned that the site, through which the program was being viewed, was seized and the connection data traced,” GdF says.

    Police ‘Discover’ Stream Creed

    Back in 2019, police in Italy announced a huge anti-piracy operation that targeted, among other things, the company operating popular IPTV service management system Xtream Codes . The software/system offered a comprehensive package that allowed people to manage their own IPTV reselling service and its customers but according to police, Xtream Codes acted illegally.

    Almost three years later, there is no news of subsequent charges, if any, but there have been accusations that the team behind Xtream Codes remained in the business with a similar product called Xtream UI. That claim was subsequently denied by the Xtream Codes team and it appears police now have a new and related discovery on their hands.

    “The consequent analyzes carried out by the investigators have, at present, made it possible to ascertain the existence of a new management system for IT flows, called ‘Stream Creed’, which appears to derive from the source code of the already known ‘Xtream Codes’, a worldwide pirate platform dismantled by the same Special Unit in 2019,” GdF says.

    The suggestion that police IT specialists only just discovered the existence of this software seems unlikely. The Stream Creed platform has been discussed in IPTV communities for at least two years accompanied by videos on sites including YouTube.

    But whether the Stream Creed discovery is new or old, DAZN – which secured rights to broadcast Serie A matches in a $3 billion deal in 2021 – is happy with the outcome of the operation.

    “We renew our full support to the law enforcement agencies who are committed every day to countering the phenomenon of piracy which every year generates enormous damage to our country system, with a particular impact on the media and entertainment industry and on end customers,” says DAZN CEO Stefano Azzi.

    “Piracy affects the whole world of OTT players, not just DAZN. With the diversification of platforms and channels, the methods of piracy also change. DAZN’s anti-piracy division and its partners are already working to stop thousands of instances through law enforcement, injunctions and continuous innovation to protect subscribers.”

    From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.