Italy: Enforcement operation takes down pirate, fines 49 resellers

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Image source: FAPAV

Italy’s Federation for the Protection of Audiovisual and Multimedia Content (FAPAV) supported ‘IPTV Special,’ an anti-piracy enforcement operation carried out by the Economic-Financial Police Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Venice.  IPTV Special shut down a pirate operation that involved 72 people and two betting shops, seizing its hardware, software and debit cards.

The piracy operation had 49 resellers and more than 650,000 end users.  Each of the resellers was fined at least €10,000, some of whom had already paid by the time that ‘IPTV Special’ was announced.

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A group identified as ‘technicians’ decrypted the streams of a range of popular premium video services. The resellers acted as entrepreneurs, selling the stolen services to the end users.  Total sales revenue was estimated to be more than a million Euros.

Read the FAPAV press release (auto-translated from Italian to English by Google Translate)

Consumer advocacy

FAPAV has also taken a prominent role in consumer education, speaking at an event in Sorrento, where it announced a new communication initiative “We Are Stories,” in collaboration with audiovisual trade associations and sponsored by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, by AGCOM and by the National Agency for the young people.

Why it matters

FAPAV summarizes that “The fight against audiovisual piracy and against all forms of undue dissemination via the web of legitimately protected intellectual works are a priority for the Body aimed at protecting the rights of those who carry out their artistic activity with passion and dedication for others and also of all the workers and workers who work at all levels, to bring artistic and cultural content to our home and non-home devices every day, without forgetting the customers who honestly buy their subscription.”

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