The pirate service Bitplay, which, among other things, illegally provided access to premium sports television channels, live broadcasts of sports matches and selected series content, has been shut down. The service was shut down following a criminal complaint by the Association of Commercial Television (AKTV) and a subsequent investigation by the Czech Police.
The Association of Commercial Television Stations identified the pirate service Bitplay in mid-2025. Given that the operator did not cease its activities despite warnings from the legitimate copyright holders, the association’s members decided to take legal action against the operator. Together with its supplier, Warezio, which monitors the occurrence of illegally shared television content for television broadcasters, AKTV prepared evidence on the basis of which the law enforcement authorities identified the operator as a natural person.
The Bitplay service, operating on the domains bitplay.my, starstreams.pro, starsites.fun and starlive.click, offered access to premium paid sports channels and broadcasts without the relevant licences from the rights holders. The service was promoted through social networks and other online channels and targeted Czech, Slovak and Polish users.
“Illegal streaming harms broadcast rights holders, sports competition partners, and athletes and sports clubs themselves. Investment in quality content is only possible in an environment where copyright is respected and protected,” said Marek Singer, president of AKTV. “The action against Bitplay is another step in our systematic approach to combating the illegal distribution of our content. We will continue to actively take action against entities that unlawfully offer and monetise protected content.”
In addition to the damage caused by piracy to copyright holders, the use of illegal services also poses a security risk to users. The biggest problem may be the misuse of personal or payment data, but also the unintentional downloading of various malicious software (viruses, malware, spyware, and more).
In addition to actively protecting copyrights, the Association of Commercial Television Stations has long focused on educational activities. As part of these activities, it operates an information website on copyrights, which is available at NormalneLegalne.cz. Here, interested parties will find a directory of legal sources, a glossary explaining terms related to intellectual property protection, answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ), and regular news focused on internet piracy. The Tokyo District Court ruled that Cloudflare, one of the world’s leading Content Delivery Network (CDN) service providers, is liable for the manner in which it provides its services, which facilitates copyright infringement. The dispute concerned the illegal distribution of popular manga titles with a global reach, including the ONE PIECE and Attack on Titan series. The lawsuit was filed by four leading Japanese publishers – Kadokawa, Kodansha, Shueisha and Shogakukan.
The case dealt with the operation of two large pirate websites that illegally made more than 4,000 manga titles available. The sites recorded over 300 million visits per month and used Cloudflare’s CDN services, which enable fast and efficient content distribution while making it difficult to identify the original servers.
The court found that the company’s liability did not lie in the CDN technology itself, but in the manner in which it provided its services. In particular, it criticised the absence of thorough customer verification procedures (Know Your Customer – KYC) and the inadequate response to repeated notifications of copyright infringement.
According to the court, providing easy access to services without thorough client identification gave pirate website operators a high degree of anonymity. This significantly complicated the normal legal steps taken by copyright holders to protect their works.
Based on these conclusions, the court ruled out the possibility of using the so-called safe harbour under Japan’s Information Distribution Platform Safety Act. It concluded that the company was aware of the illegal nature of the activities that its services enabled and had the technical ability to terminate them. Cloudflare was therefore ordered to pay approximately 500 million yen.
The decision fits into the broader international debate on the liability of digital intermediaries. Similar issues are also addressed by European law – for example, the Digital Services Act and the Copyright Directive strengthen the obligations of platforms in the area of due diligence and cooperation and limit exemptions from liability in cases where the intermediary does not act passively or respond to obvious infringements of the law.
The company is also facing regulatory measures in Italy. The regulatory authority AGCOM recently imposed a fine of over EUR 14 million on the company for violating anti-piracy legislation (Law No. 93/2023). According to the authority, the company failed to comply with an order to block access to illegal content reported by the rights holder through the Piracy Shield system and did not take sufficient technological and organisational measures to prevent the further dissemination of such content.
This development confirms that even technology intermediaries can be held directly liable if they fail to respond to clear and timely requests to remove illegal content.
Source: previti.it
Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at City of London Police has arrested 4 people and seized 10 servers in Manchester as part of an investigation into a large-scale illegal IPTV streaming service.
Officers executed warrants last week, confiscating servers and associated equipment valued at around £75,000 each, with total seizures exceeding £750,000 (€866,000).
The investigation began after Sky reported suspicious activity linked to an illicit streaming service. Investigators identified individuals believed to be operating an illegal IPTV operation supplying consumers across the UK, with one suspect alleged to have generated more than £3 million in revenue.
During the raids, officers shut down the servers on site. Sky said the action caused widespread disruption to the service’s illegal streaming output across the UK.
Detective Constable Jordan Day said the services are “organised criminal operations generating millions in illegal profits”, adding that working closely with partners such as Sky helps dismantle piracy networks and “send a clear message” to those behind them.
Matt Hibbert, Sky’s Group Director of Anti-Piracy, said the broadcaster would continue working with police and industry partners to disrupt criminal networks, and warned consumers that illegal streams can expose devices and personal data to risks. He pointed to research from BeStreamWise suggesting nearly 65% of illegal streamers have faced security scares such as malware.
Source: broadbandtvnews.com The US Department of Justice has issued seizure warrants against three US-registered internet domains tied to commercial websites allegedly operated from Bulgaria and accused of distributing copyrighted content without authorisation.
In a statement, the department said the services offered pirated copies of movies, television programmes and other content, including video games, software and e-books.
According to affidavits supporting the warrants, the three domains attracted “tens of millions” of visits a year, hosted “thousands” of infringed works and drove “millions” of downloads, with retail value totalling millions of dollars. The department said the sites were among the most popular in Bulgaria, with one frequently ranking in the country’s top 10 domains, and appeared to generate significant advertising revenue.
Visitors attempting to reach the services will now see a seizure notice stating the domains are in US government custody and warning that wilful copyright infringement is a crime. The domains named in the action are zamunda.net, arenabg.com and zelka.org.
The operation involved cooperation with Bulgarian agencies and Europol, one of a number of coordinated international law-enforcement operations to take place in recent weeks. The DOJ said it worked with Bulgarian partners including the National Investigative Service, the General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime, the State Agency for National Security and the Prosecutor’s Office, alongside US partners including the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, Homeland Security Investigations and the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center.
The department said the investigation is being led by HSI, with prosecutors from the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and the Southern District of Mississippi, and support from its International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property programme based in Bucharest.
Source: broadbandtvnews.com A coordinated international law-enforcement operation led by the Catania District Prosecutor’s Office and Italy’s Postal and Cybercrime Police has targeted an industrial-scale illegal IPTV network, with investigators naming 31 suspects following raids in 11 Italian cities and 14 countries.
ACE said the action took offline infrastructure serving millions of users, while Italian authorities and supporting reports said more than 1,000 resellers in Italy were shut down and more than 125,000 end users were blocked in the country, with “millions” more impacted worldwide.
The operation resulted in the seizure of three well-known illegal IPTV platforms – IPTVItalia, migliorIPTV and DarkTV – alongside associated websites and Telegram sales channels. Investigators said the services offered pirated live and on-demand programming from major rights holders and platforms including Sky, DAZN, Mediaset, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Paramount and Disney+.
Authorities said the investigation grew out of leads and forensic work linked to a previous operation, Taken Down, and included network monitoring and financial tracing, including cryptocurrency flows. Reports also pointed to proEuropaTV being identified in Romania, distributing via six servers in Romania and an African country, and the discovery of a SIM farm in Naples with more than 200 phone cards.
ACE and industry partners framed the takedown as timely ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, with DAZN saying the case showed the impact of “coordinated global action” against piracy that undermines investment and exposes consumers to fraud and cyber risks.
Source: broadbandtvnews.com Over 23,000 audiovisual works were allegedly published on the internet without the authors’ consent. Police in Humenné charged a 32-year-old man who had been illegally making protected content available for many years. The damage exceeded tens of thousands of EUROS.
The case was uncovered by the police in Humenné, who have now brought charges against the 32-year-old man. According to the findings, he repeatedly violated copyright between 2020 and 2024 by making protected works available to the general public via the internet.
Thousands of files on one server
The man allegedly used electronic devices with internet access to gradually upload content to an internet server operated by a Czech company. According to TASR, there were more than 23, 000 files in total, which were freely available for further distribution.
According to the police, this was a serious violation of the law.
“These were audiovisual works, i.e. copyrighted works, without the consent of the copyright holder,”
said Jana Ligdayová, spokesperson for the Regional Police Directorate in Prešov.
By unlawfully publishing the material, the accused caused damage to the company in excess of EUR 19,500.
He faces imprisonment
The man is currently under prosecution but remains at liberty. However, the case has serious consequences. According to the law, he faces up to two years in prison for the crime of copyright infringement.
The police are continuing to analyse the scope of the proceedings and gather evidence. The case is another warning that the illegal distribution of films, series or other audiovisual content can have serious legal consequences.
Source: istream.cz A Spanish court has sentenced those behind the Servicio-IPTV group to prison terms of up to 3 years for intellectual property offences linked to the illegal sale of pay-TV signals, including access to Movistar+.
According to Eleconomista, the Provincial Court of Malaga ordered the permanent closure of the services servicio-iptv, servicioiptvccam and servicioiptvpremium, after finding they breached Spain’s Intellectual Property Law. The ruling was delivered via a plea agreement, with the defendants admitting the facts and accepting the prosecution’s requested sentence, cutting the penalty and removing the option of an appeal.
Investigators said the group sold access lists to more than 8,000 national and international TV channels through subscription packages priced from around €50 per year, alongside monthly, quarterly and semi-annual options.
The operation was led by Spain’s National Police Central Cybercrime Unit. Telefónica initiated the legal action, with other rights holders later joining via ADIVAN, whose members include Sony Pictures Entertainment Iberia, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Spain and The Walt Disney Company.
Alongside prison sentences and fines, the court set civil liability in favour of Telefónica, initially estimated at €80,000, citing the scale of the alleged commercial benefit and the economic impact on content owners.
Source: broadbandtvnews.com The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) has contacted more than 1,000 people across the UK, warning them to stop using illegal TV streaming services or risk prosecution.
FACT said the emails and texts follow investigations carried out with police forces nationwide and form part of its wider effort to raise awareness of the risks linked to unauthorised streaming.
The organisation warned end users they are not anonymous, and said viewers who access illegal streaming services may be liable for criminal offences, including under Section 11 of the Fraud Act 2006.
The campaign follows the recent case of Jonathan Edge, from Liverpool, who was jailed for his role in running an illegal streaming service. Edge was sentenced to 3 years and 4 months in a prosecution supported by FACT and Merseyside Police. FACT said Edge’s own use of the unauthorised service was treated as a separate offence, resulting in a concurrent sentence of 2 years and 3 months, underlining that criminal action can extend beyond suppliers to end users.
FACT said that during investigations into Edge and into operators of another illegal streaming service, police seized customer details from people who had bought access to so-called “loaded” Firesticks, Android or Kodi devices. Those customers have now been contacted directly, warning them of the dangers of continuing to use illegal services.
FACT chairman Kieron Sharp said the campaign was designed to make clear that end users are breaking the law and face “real” risks, including criminal liability, scams, viruses and harmful content, urging people to use legitimate providers.
T/DCI Alethea Fowler of the Tarian Regional Organised Crime Unit said end users face risks including loss of personal data and potential fire hazards, while also funding serious organised crime. She said the unit would continue working with partners including FACT to identify distributors and bring them to justice.
FACT thanked its law enforcement partners, including Merseyside Police, Tarian and the North East Regional Organised Crime Unit, for supporting efforts to tackle wider criminal networks linked to illegal streaming.
Source: broadbandtvnews.com The Paris Judicial Court has issued 2 rulings in favour of the LFP (French Professional Football League) and LFP Media, extending efforts to block illegal streaming of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2.
The decisions, issued December 18, cover the blocking of websites and IPTV services unlawfully carrying the matches, and also target tools used to bypass ISP restrictions, including VPNs and alternative DNS services.
French regulator Arcom says 66% of internet users who use illegal solutions rely on VPNs or alternative DNS to circumvent blocking measures implemented by internet service providers.
In a first, DNS4EU will be required to implement blocking measures under the court’s orders.
The LFP and LFP Media said the rulings would allow them to broaden their anti-piracy strategy to include a wider set of technical intermediaries involved in the distribution chain, and build on measures already secured against ISPs, certain alternative DNS services and search engines.
They added the approach is designed to protect rights while supporting the legal market for watching Ligue 1 McDonald’s and Ligue 2 BKT, as part of a wider strategy carried out alongside clubs, broadcasters and distributors.
Source: broadbandtvnews.com The grey area in various forms has accompanied the distribution of digital content from the very beginning. One of the leading technology managers spoke to Broadband TV News about this long-standing problem, which is now “exploding”.
The interview, which was published a few days ago onBroadband TV News, warns of a dramatic increase in piracy, which has turned into a form of organised business, to which operators must respond by changing their strategy. Maria MalinkowitschofVerimatrix, one of the world’s leading cyber security companies, points out that traditional control methods are failing, as “81% of requests to remove illegally uploaded content are now ignored”.
According to the manager, companies are still mistakenly focusing on addressing the consequences rather than the causes. She therefore emphasises the need for a fundamental shift, whereby “the industry must move from mere reaction to detention and prevention”, which she considers to be the only viable long-term solution. Malinkowitsch identifies the abuse of distribution networks and unprotected applications that enable mass real-time streaming theft as a key threat.
How digital pirates steal
Traditional forms, such as torrents, are giving way to more sophisticated forms of piracy. The main form today is what we might call“piracy as a service”– complex illegal streaming platforms that function like professional platforms such asNetflix, with their own interface, recommendation system and thousands of channels, including premium sports. The second key form is“CDN network theft”– hackers steal login details from legal applications and use them to download original content directly from the servers where it is legally stored.
A long-standing problem is the distribution of television content via web browsers, smart TVs, smartphones or tablets, which are more easily accessible than the classic set-top boxes with encryption via decoder cards used in the past. Older viewers may remember the arrival of the Romanian satellite serviceDigi TVand its super-cheap offers. Piracy even reached such a level that keys could be obtained automatically using specially modified software.
A “business” like any other
On the dark web, which is referred to as the dark layer of the internet, you can buy a ready-made package for operating such a service. It is a completely illegal platform that already includes a recommendation system, a user management system, an administration interface, payments via payment cards and cryptocurrencies, and thousands of channels, including premium sports. The whole issue was described very well by theSynamedia portal less than three years ago.
How to deal with such services?Artificial intelligence helps significantly. Monitoring is performed using AI-controlled systems that scan the web, illegal IPTV platforms, and social networks (especiallyTelegramchannels, where “operators” find resellers). Watermarking plays a key role in detection – invisible marks are inserted into videos, which remain intact even after recoding or other manipulations. When the content appears on a pirate platform, this watermark can be identified and its exact source traced to find out who is responsible for the theft.
An example of a successful fight from the Czech Republic
TheStream Cinema Communityadd-on was long one of the most serious piracy tools on the Czech market, through whichKodiusers accessed content from all key players such as Netflix,Disney, HBO MaxandPrime Video. The technical complexity of combating this add-on lay in its legal architecture: the service itself did not host any content, but only functioned as a search engine and player for links to files stored in cloud storage.
Although the add-on (and its alternative, Stream Cinema) had been known about for a long time and was considered problematic, it wasthe Association of Commercial Television (AKTV), which represents the Nova, Prima and Óčko groups on the domestic market, that finally managed to do something about it after years. It completely disappeared from this online platform, the SCC “service” ended completely, and its alternative lost the content protected by AKTV.
Interview available here.
Source: mediaguru.cz
