Italian authorities shut down major streaming piracy network - Engadget

The Cinemagoal app illegally rebroadcasted streaming content from platforms including Netflix and Disney+, along with other services. Italian Guardia di Finanza carried out more than 100 searches and seizures across the country. The app operated 24 hours a day and retransmitted access codes from legitimate subscriptions to fake accounts that streamed media to Cinemagoal subscribers. Its design avoided requiring a connection to a user’s IP address and could bypass platform security checks, making tracking more difficult. Subscriptions cost 40 to 130 euros per year and were paid using hard-to-trace methods such as cryptocurrency or fake foreign bank accounts. Authorities estimated financial harm at about 300 million euros and targeted early users with fines. Servers containing decryption data and source code were seized with help from other European authorities.

"The Guardia di Finanza, an Italian law enforcement agency under the country's Ministry of Economy and Finance, announced that it conducted more than 100 search and seizures across the country related to the Cinemagoal app. The Italian authority said the app ran 24 hours a day, retransmitting access codes from legitimate subscriptions to fake accounts that streamed media to Cinemagoal subscribers."

"According to the Guardia di Finanza, the app's design was smart enough to get around a platform's security checks and didn't require a connection to a user's IP address, making it harder to track. Cinemagoal subscriptions went for 40 to 130 euros, between $46 to $151, a year and were paid through hard-to-trace methods, like cryptocurrency or fake foreign bank accounts, the Italian agency said."

"The Guardia di Finanza initially estimated Cinemagoal's financial harm to be around 300 million euros, or around $350 million, but is also targeting the first 1,000 subscribers who used devices for the pirating app, with fines ranging from 154 to 5,000 euros, or between $179 to $5,800. It's not clear if Cinemagoal is gone for good, but the Italian agency said it worked with other European authorities to seize servers that contained decryption data and the app's source code."

"Before the crackdown on Cinemagoal, authorities across the world have been making it harder to access pirated content online. In 2022, the popular piracy site Popcorn Time shut down in 2022, while the illegal sports streaming service Streameast was taken offline more recently in September of last year."

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