Police in Zamora, Spain, arrested a group of seven individuals distributing programming pirated from legal platforms operated from Valladolid and other cities. The group distributed TV channels, sports programming and movies from Amazon, Netflix and HBO, to a private social group with about 15,000 members throughout Spain between May 2019 and 2020.
Initial investigations valued the stolen programming at more than 11 million euros; plus a cost of more than three million in lost tax revenue, according to police. Equipment was seized, along with bars of gold, cash, and documents that helped prove the illegal nature of the piracy operation.
Read further details: La Opinión of Zamora, Spain
Why it matters
Cooperation with the authorities pays off, even for pirates, who were initially sentenced to more than nine years imprisonment, according to a news report.
Because they reimbursed much of the revenue collected through their illegal operations, their sentences were reduced to three years and eight months for the leaders and from 9 to 18 months for the others.
