Police Dismantle Pirated TV Streaming Network With 500,000 Users

The Spanish police have dismantled a network of pirated streaming sites that illegally distributed content from 2,600 TV channels and 23,000 movies and series to roughly 500,000 users. From a report: The law enforcement action took place in a joint operation involving the Spanish police and EUROPOL, resulting in the arrest of four operators in Malaga. Additionally, 95 resellers in Spain, Malta, Portugal, Cyprus, Greece, and the United Kingdom have been identified. The pirated TV network used numerous websites to advertise and promote subscription-based streaming services, listing unlimited access to channels from different platforms. The live streams from these platforms were decoded with stolen or abused accounts and passwords and then re-broadcasted to the subscribers' video player clients. The resellers bought the subscription packages from the organization operators and resold them to thousands of people in their local countries to profit from the price difference.

Oh no, another one!

[Adjustinthings]

Next they will turn their focus to slashdot to remove the dupes and dupees.

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[Adjustinthings]

oh, different country. my bad.

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[wakeboarder]

We wouldn't be so lucky.

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[war4peace]

I believe this piece of news is about tvforu.co

Stupid DRM

[bradley13]

I have a friend who has a streaming service. We planned a movie night, and he brought his laptop over. He could not get the movies to stream.

While he was trying, I pirated them. In the end we watched the pirated versions.

As long as the "legitimate" sources cripple their offerings through DRM, piracy provides a superior customer experience. We had the legal right to see the movies, and still watched pirated versions. How fscked up is that?

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[drinkypoo]

Can't install the Roku app on Google TV, nor a decent browser either. Not going to add hardware so I can watch one service. So if something is only on Roku... yeah

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[jwhyche]

I used to use a Roku till I got tired of the limitations of the platform. I chucked it and bought a nvidia shield. I don't know what the difference between the Shield and google tv are but I know I can get a decent browser for it. There are several available but I use the Odin Browser.

There is a nordvpn client, and others, available for it. That turned out to be very useful when MLB kept trying to black out baseball games I wanted to watch out of native area. Looking forward to seeing what needs to

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[drinkypoo]

I don't know what the difference between the Shield and google tv are but I know I can get a decent browser for it.

I was being slightly facetious as I can sideload whatever I want more or less, but some apps refuse to run on google tv and some just don't work properly. The differences between the shield and a "normal" google TV are mostly more GPU and being able to install slightly more apps. The GPU in my TV is total trash, at least as far as 3d performance goes. The CPU is actually pretty peppy, though.

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[jwhyche]

The GPU in my TV is total trash, at least as far as 3d performance goes. The CPU is actually pretty peppy, though.

Mine is the same what but it's not really surprising. Most "smart" tv's seem to use the same basic processor, a cortex ARM A53 or some version of it. It is not really a bad little processor but nothing to write home about. When I bought this tv a few years ago I probed it to see what it could do. Basically, it wouldn't do anything but h.264 even for 4K video.

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[bsdetector101]

Gave up on Roku after a while myself. Also tried Kodi for a few years to watch everything then it's sources dried up. Ditched DishTV over 10 years ago when I found various websites where I could watch/stream ANY sport, PPV events and other sites to stream movies / TV shows. MMA fights are great, now my leading sport event where the only knee taken is when someone got beat down !!! Stream and they can't after you !

Re:Stupid DRM

[Opportunist]

That's pretty much the problem. Nothing has changed from the DVD movie experience [labnol.org].

They STILL did not realize that if you are competing with "free", your only chance is to beat them at the convenience level. You sure as all hell don't do that if your product is less convenient than the free one.

Spanish Unemployment and Voters

[Canberra1]

Spain has high unemployment and VAT about the same as everywhere else. No matter what tricks, angry underemployed people will vote in elections. So this bust may see another Italy down the road. I suspect the bribe to take action will exceed re-election money by a mile. So refreshing to see Spanish politicians thinking principle more important than re-elections. Fools.

Well

[LatencyKills]

That should end piracy entirely. Surely no other sites either now or in the future shall exist.

Like the classic song says,,,

[Random361]

https://youtu.be/gv3GihnduUw [youtu.be]

Heroes

[fod_dzug]

Good thing the police is protecting the population from dangerous pirates!

I don't see the problem

[VeryFluffyBunny]

They're not my cup of tea but why are the police so against people watching pirate movies & TV shows? Do they dislike Johnny Depp or something?

If you pirate, don't advertise it !!!

[bsdetector101]

The pirated TV network used numerous websites to advertise and promote subscription-based streaming services, listing unlimited access to channels from different platforms. The resellers bought the subscription packages from the organization operators and resold them to thousands of people in their local countries to profit from the price difference. This is where they royally screwed up.