Pirated Netflix-Amazon Movie Download Website With 2 Million Users Shut Down By Europol
It was so huge that the platform had its own customer service team set up.
Content creators are in a constant fight with piracy platforms that severely affect their revenue stream.
However, today is a victorious day for content creators as European police recently busted an illegal streaming ring of epic proportions.
Reuters
Reported first by Bloomberg, the illegal streaming ring provided service to over 2 million people. It was in operation for nearly five years. The platform offered over 40,000 channels, movies, and other kinds of content, as revealed by Europol.
It was so huge that the platform had its own customer service team set up in place to address complains with state-of-the-art technical assistance. The report reveals that they managed to earn around 15 million euros -- through PayPal, cryptocurrencies as well as bank transfers.
Pirating content from Netflix Amazon
According to the authorities, The criminal organisation used various websites in the EU and third countries to grant customers access to television channels and online providers for prices well below market value, by illegally tapping into the signal of people who were legal subscribers to the service.
Using computer servers they accessed the content of legally operating broadcast enterprises and then illegally redistributed the stolen content to their customers.
The perpetrators were operating primarily out of Spain. Authorities also served 15 search warrants on different locations and claim to have seized assets worth millions. This included property, sports cars as well as jewelry and cash, total amounting to a whopping 4.8 million euros. Authorities further revealed that 1.1 million euros were frozen in numerous bank accounts too.
Netflix
End of piracy online?
Midia Research analyst Tim Mulligan said in a conversation with Bloomberg, ¡°The background threat of piracy means that the subscription video-on-demand services will have the ongoing threat of piracy as a pricing factor.¡±
With each platform getting its own exclusive line of content (like Disney with Disney+) people who actually subscribe to streaming platforms can find their monthly bills skyrocket with so many subscriptions on board.
And from the looks of it, the pricing of these platforms won't be going down. This will only force normal people to get on the path of piracy to watch their favourite shows.