In the digital age, the battle against piracy continues to rage. Roula Khalaf, the Editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories in her weekly newsletter. This time, it's a story that has sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry. A piracy ring that managed to provide 22 million subscribers in Europe with cheap access to stolen content from international streaming services has finally been brought to an end by Italian authorities after a two-year investigation.

Piracy's Global Reach and Impact

The criminal enterprise behind this piracy ring was a complex international operation. Using a sophisticated IT system, they "captured and resold" live programming and on-demand content from major companies like sports broadcaster DAZN, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Paramount, Sky, and Disney+. Eurojust estimated that this operation, one of the world's largest illegal streaming services, generated revenues of roughly €3 billion a year and caused combined damages of more than €10 billion to the affected broadcast companies. Francesco Curcio, the criminal prosecutor leading the investigation, compared the rate of profit from these illegal activities to that of cocaine trafficking, highlighting the severity of the problem.In coordinated raids on Tuesday, almost 300 officers of Italy's postal police searched 89 sites in 15 regions of Italy. Their international counterparts also searched 14 locations in the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Croatia, and China. This was the largest operation ever conducted against audiovisual piracy in Italy or internationally.The two suspected ringleaders of the enterprise were based in the Netherlands, with another 11 people arrested in Croatia. Luigi De Siervo, the chief executive of Italy's Serie A football league, praised the shutdown as a "crucial step" in the fight against content theft. He emphasized that they are constantly battling against criminals who use sophisticated technologies to evade controls. "Piracy is not just a crime; it's a direct attack on all honest people in this country, on investments, and on the quality of content that fans and enthusiasts deserve to see," he added.

Live Sports Streaming and Piracy

Live sports streaming services are particularly concerned about the impact of piracy. They estimate that it costs their industry tens of billions of dollars a year. DAZN and broadcaster beIN took action last year by backing a new global task force and working more closely with Interpol and Europol to crack down on streaming service piracy.Italy's Serie A and its broadcasters have also been pushing for stronger action against illegal streaming of games. This year, they launched a special initiative called Piracy Shield to attempt to crack down on illegal streaming of live matches in real time. Under the scheme, Italy's telecoms regulator is obliged to block any IP address reported by broadcasters as suspected of disseminating pirated signals of their games within 30 minutes. However, this initiative has been mired in controversy and accused of causing disruption by blocking unrelated sites.

Piracy's Advertising and Distribution

Italian authorities say the illegal service was advertised via social media platforms like Telegram and other forums. Subscribers paid roughly €10 a month to access a full package of pirated content from major streaming services, including movies and serials, with more than 2,500 channels. During this week's raids, authorities discovered servers in Romania and Hong Kong from which signals captured from satellite television services were transmitted via the internet to subscribers throughout Europe. Nine servers were shut down on Tuesday by Italian postal police and their foreign counterparts, and additional equipment was found in the UK and the Netherlands.This long-term and widespread operation involved piracy of all types of broadcast content, not just sports. It shows the extent to which piracy has infiltrated the digital landscape and the need for continued efforts to combat it.