MADRID – Motion Picture Association Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin today accepted the Distinguished Cross of the Police Merit with Distinction from Francisco Pardo Piqueras, General Director of the Spanish National Police. Rivkin received the honor, which is the highest awarded by the Spanish National Police to a civilian, in recognition of the work the MPA and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) have done to fight piracy and protect intellectual property rights.
Recent operations include an action in March 2020, carried out in coordination with ACE, which dismantled an illegal broadcasting infrastructure of audiovisual content that had more than 100,000,000 downloads, through the ‘Mobdro’ application. According to the Police, had the operation continued it would have produced an illicit profit of more than 15 million euros. In June 2020, ACE cooperated with the National Police, EUROPOL and EUROJUST in another unprecedented operation that dismantled a network that illegally distributed audiovisual content. The illicit network served more than two million users worldwide.
Read the full press release by MPA and ACE.
Why it matters
“When we arrest individuals or take down illegal sites, we don’t just curb piracy, we protect jobs in Spain and around the world,” Rivkin said. “By preserving those jobs, we make it possible to keep making the movies and television shows that we love, and we continue to create an environment where consumers can enjoy their art and their entertainment in safe and legal ways.
Piracy Monitor reported on the antipiracy operation that took down Mobdro, in March.
According to ACE’s press release, “With its “all-of-the-above” approach to reducing piracy, ACE’s legal and operational toolkit includes criminal referrals, litigation, and direct communications among other tactics.”
