€1.6M seized in illegal streaming network takedown

European authorities have dismantled one of the largest illegal streaming networks operating within and outside the European Union (EU).

The unnamed illegal Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service provider, which provides TV series and other video content, ripped off more than 2,500 TV channels, including sports broadcasts, which were available to 22 million users worldwide.

Law enforcement agencies, Europol, and Eurojust investigated suspects for distributing pirated material to online streaming services. Out of the 102 suspects investigated, 11 were arrested.

Throughout the operation, 112 houses were searched, at least 29 servers were seized, and 100 domains were dismantled.

Alongside the servers and domains, around €1.6 million ($1.7 million) in cryptocurrency and €40,000 in cash were seized.

Over in the US, another illegal TV show streaming service was taken down, and its final employee was found guilty.

Jetflicks was a pirate subscription-based streaming service allowing users to stream and download popular TV shows illegally.

According to the Department of Justice, Jetflicks operators would use sophisticated computer scripts and software to scour other popular pirated websites, like The Pirate Bay, for example, for copyrighted content they could use for their streaming service.

The computer scripts and software would supposedly run nonstop, stealing hundreds of thousands of copyrighted TV episodes.

At one point, Jetflicks claimed to have over 180,000 different TV episodes, far more than Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime.

When Jetflicks was up and running, the streaming platform served tens of thousands of subscribers throughout the US.

Jetflicks made the perpetrators millions of dollars in revenue at the streaming industry and copyright owners' expense.