Two men were indicted in Taiwan, who were suspected of operating a piracy operation called 8maple.ru,. Authorities requested that about US$2.35 million in assets from their “illegal dealings” be frozen. They were said to have been working with Chinese nationals since 2015.
They are accused of violating Taiwan’s Copyright Act, by distributing 107 Taiwanese dramas, 64 American dramas, 60 Japanese dramas and 144 movies from Taiwan, infringing on the intellectual property rights of several companies; using offshore hosting resources to distribute the programming free of charge.
Read further reporting via ICRT (Taiwan) and Focus Taiwan (CNA English News)
Basd on evidence collected over time by Taiwan’s CD TV, Fuji Television Network and others, the operators were thought to be making an equivalent of about US$70,000 per month in advertising revenue. The total value of the infringment was estimated to have infringed on the equivalent of about $3.5 Million.