The results of two anti-piracy initiatives by Brazil were announced in recent weeks: Phase 7 of Brazil’s ongoing Operation 404, and a new initiative called Operation Redirect.
Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security announced the results of Phase 7 of its ongoing Operation 404, On September 19; which has been underway since 2019. Under Phase 7, 675 websites and 14 illegal streaming applications were blocked or suspended, and audio and video content, including games and music, has been removed. In addition, content was de-indexed in search engines, and profiles and pages were removed from social networks.
Nine arrests were made, six in Brazil and three in Argentina. Several materials related to the crimes were seized as a result of court orders. 30 search and seizure warrants were fulfilled. Part of the operation was to take down Magis TV, which was subject to a complaint by LaLiga in Argentina.
Domestic agency collaboration
Phase 7 of Operation 404 was coordinated across multiple law enforcement agencies in Brazil, including the Cyber Operations Laboratory (Ciberlab), the Directorate of Operations and Intelligence (Diopi), the National Secretariat of Public Security (Senasp), the Civil Police of Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo and the Public Prosecutors of São Paulo (Cyber Gaeco) and Santa Catarina (Cyber Gaeco).
International partnerships
Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security also collaborated with a host of law enforcement agencies and intellectual property protection associations in other countries, including Argentina, USA, Paraguay, Peru and the United Kingdom.
Law enforcement agencies included Unidad Fiscal Especializada en Investigación de Ciberdelitos (UFEIC), from Argentina; City of London Police – Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit and Intellectual Porperty Office (IPO), from the United Kingdom; Department of Justice and Department of Commerce, from the USA; Instituto Nacional de Defensa de la Competencia y de la Protección de la Propiedad Intelectual (INDECOPI), from Peru;
Media industry stakeholders
Media industry stakeholders participating in Operation 404, Phase 7, included the Premier League; Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE); Brazilian Association of Pay Television (ABTA); Alliance Against Paid Television Piracy (ALIANZA) – Latin America; National Council to Combat Piracy (CNCP); Association Protecting Intellectual and Phonographic Rights (AP); DIF Motion Picture Association (MPA) – Latin America; Representing the Recording Industry Worldwide (IFPI); Entertainment Software Association (ESA); Institute of Intellectual Property of the European Union (EUIPO); and Dirección Nacional de Propiedad Intelectual (DINAPI) and Unidad Especializada en Hechos Punibles Contra la Propiedad Intelectual do Paraguay.
History of Operation 404
Operation 404 has been an ongoing initiative, which has been run in stages since at least 2019. Results are announced on approximately an annual basis.
- Phase 1 – November 1, 2019: 12 states and 30 search and seizure warrants, blocking 210 websites and one hundred illegal content streaming apps.
- Phase 2 – November 5, 2020: ten states and 25 search and seizure warrants, blocking 252 websites and 65 illegal content streaming apps.
- Phase 3 – July 8, 2021: eight states and 11 search and seizure warrants, blocking 334 websites and 94 illegal content streaming apps.
- Phase 4 – June 21, 2022: for the first time, the searches took place in the metaverse. Four channels that made illegal content transmissions and 90 videos taken from the air were deactivated, as well as 461 music streaming apps. More than 10.2 million downloads were made on platforms that pretended to be from artists such as Alok, Xand Avião, Marília Mendonça and Aline Barros.
- Phase 5 – March 14, 2023: 199 illegal streaming and game sites and 63 music apps were also removed, as well as 128 domains and six messaging app channels were blocked. They had more than 4,000 subscribers and were used to distribute songs not yet officially released. Peru and the United Kingdom participated in this phase.
- Phase 6 – November 28, 2023: There were 606 irregular sites blocked. Twenty-two search and seizure warrants, 238 blocks and/or suspension of illegal content streaming websites and applications, deindexing of content in search engines and removal of profiles and pages on social networks. In the other participating countries, approximately 368 websites were blocked and two search and seizure warrants were executed.
- Phase 7 – September 2024: 675 websites and 14 illegal streaming applications were blocked or suspended, and audio and video content, including games and music, were removed.
In an initiative called Operation Animes, Brazil has also collaborated with Asia-based organizations to fight piracy of anime content within the framework of Operation 404
- Operation Animes Phase 1 – February 2023: six Web sites were down in total, including Anime Online, Animes BR, Animes Online HD, Animes Online, BetterAnime and Animes-Vision
- Operation Animes Phase 2 – April 2024: Eleven search-and-seizure warrants were executed to seize computers and hard drives to use as evidence of copyright infringement crimes. Two sites were “blocked and/or suspended” and the infringing content was de-indexed from search engines.
Penalties
The name refers to the HTTP protocol response code (404) that indicates when a page is not found or is unavailable. One of the main actions of the operation is to make criminal services that violate the victims’ copyright unavailable.
In Brazil, the penalty for those who commit this crime is imprisonment of two to four years and a fine (Article 184, §3º of the Brazilian Penal Code). Those investigated can also be indicted for criminal association (Article 288 – CP) and money laundering (Article 1º – Law 9.613/1998).
Operation Redirect
Another antipiracy operation underway in Brazil is Operation Redirect, which is coordinated by Ciberlab, which focuses on risks to the safety of consumers who use pirate services. Operation Redirect is the first operation of its kind in Brazil to target illegal sites associated with malware distribution.
This first iteration of Operation Redirect targeted a range of infringing websites that collectively received over 12 million visits in Brazil in the last year. They include illegal linking music sites, Stream ripping sites and Torrent search engines
During an action announced on August 27 by IFPI, Operation Redirect resulted in the identification and deactivation of eight sites that were sharing unauthorized music while exposing users to malware and viruses.
Further reading
International operation against piracy takes 675 websites and 14 streaming apps off the air. Press release. September 19, 2024. Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Brazil). (Original press release is in Brazilian Portuguese)
Brazilan authorities launch Operation Redirect targeting illegal music sites responsible for malware distrbution. Article. August 27, 2024. International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)
Earlier reporting about Operation 404 and its spinoffs. Articles. 2019-2024. Piracy Monitor
Earlier reporting about Operation Animes. Articles. 2023-2024. Piracy Monitor
Why it matters
In the words of Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security, “(Distribution of) pirated content on websites and digital platforms (is) a practice that causes significant damage to the economy and the creative industry, in addition to injuring the rights of authors and artists. The losses for the cultural and creative sector are significant, but the damage goes beyond the economic impact.
