Italian Authorities Dismantle Major Streaming Piracy Operation Costing Hundreds of Millions

Italy's Financial Police announced Friday the successful dismantling of a large-scale streaming piracy operation that resulted in estimated losses of 300 million euros ($348 million) for major entertainment platforms including Sky, DAZN, Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify.

The Guardia di Finanza detailed the scope of the illicit enterprise, which operated through a sophisticated application named "CINEMAGOAL." This technology functioned by connecting user devices to servers located abroad, which then illegally decrypted and redistributed broadcast content.

According to authorities, the network relied on virtual machines stationed throughout Italy that functioned continuously to intercept and redistribute authentication credentials from legitimate subscriptions registered under false identities, refreshing access codes every three minutes. The operation managed to circumvent the security protocols implemented by streaming platforms without requiring a direct connection tied to a particular IP address, thereby complicating efforts to identify individual users.

Consumers purchasing access through the network paid annual fees ranging from 40 to 130 euros.

Prosecutors in Bologna, working alongside Eurojust, the European Judicial Cooperation Agency, successfully identified and seized foreign servers containing the decryption infrastructure and application source code. Law enforcement coordinated simultaneous operations in France and Germany as part of the broader crackdown.

The investigation also identified the use of conventional piracy devices commonly referred to in Italy as "Pizzuto." Authorities have identified approximately 1,000 users of these devices and plan to issue fines ranging from 154 to 5,000 euros per individual.