The Italian financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, shut down a big pirate streaming network that operated through the Cinemagoal app. They illegally rebroadcast content from Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, and other platforms by using codes from legitimate subscriptions and redirecting the media stream to fake accounts not tied to an IP address. The yearly subscription cost anywhere from 40 to 130 euros, and they took cryptocurrency or fake foreign bank accounts as payment. We’re talking about total losses of about 300 million euros. During over 100 raids, the police took servers with the app’s source code and said they’d fine the first thousand users of the pirated software anywhere from 154 to 5,000 euros.
The Italian financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, reported a successful operation against the pirated Cinemagoal app, which illegally streamed content from Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, and other services. Engadget has more on this.
The agency says they did over 100 searches and seizures across the country. The app was up and running 24/7, using codes from legit subscriptions to redirect them to fake accounts. This meant that media could be streamed to Cinemagoal users without a direct link to an IP address, making tracking difficult.
The cost of a subscription to the service ranged from 40 to 130 euros per year. They made payments using cryptocurrency or fake foreign bank accounts, which made it hard to track the money.
The Guardia di Finanza said Cinemagoal’s activities cost them about 300 million euros. On top of that, law enforcement is planning to fine the first thousand users who used devices to access the pirated app. Fines will range from 154 to 5,000 euros.
The agency also said that, working with other European agencies, they seized servers with decryption data and the program’s source code. This could mean that they’re planning to shut down Cinemagoal for good, but nothing’s been confirmed yet.