Italian authorities have dismantled a large-scale streaming piracy operation accused of causing roughly €300 million in damages to major entertainment companies, including Netflix, Disney+, Sky, DAZN, and Spotify.
The investigation, led by Italy’s Guardia di Finanza financial police, targeted a sophisticated piracy system built around an application known as “CINEMAGOAL.” Authorities said the platform connected user devices to foreign servers that illegally decrypted and redistributed premium streaming content.
According to investigators, the system relied on virtual machines operating continuously inside Italy to capture and retransmit access codes from legitimate subscription accounts created under fake identities. Police said fresh access credentials were generated and redistributed every three minutes to avoid detection by streaming providers.
The operation allegedly bypassed security protections implemented by major streaming platforms and avoided direct IP-based identification methods, making it significantly harder for companies to trace illegal viewers. Authorities said pirated subscriptions were sold to users for between €40 and €130 annually, offering access to premium content at a fraction of legitimate service prices.
Italian prosecutors in Bologna coordinated the international investigation with support from Eurojust and law enforcement agencies in France and Germany. Officials confirmed they seized foreign servers storing decryption data as well as the application’s source code during simultaneous raids across multiple countries.
Investigators also uncovered the continued use of “pezzotto” devices, illegal streaming boxes commonly used in Italy to access pirated television channels and subscription services. Authorities said around 1,000 users linked to the piracy network have already been identified and could face fines ranging from €154 to €5,000.
The crackdown reflects growing pressure from governments and media companies attempting to combat increasingly advanced streaming piracy systems. As subscription costs continue rising across multiple entertainment platforms, cybersecurity researchers and analysts have warned that online piracy has been resurging globally.
Streaming piracy operations have become significantly more sophisticated in recent years, often using distributed server infrastructure, encrypted delivery systems, and rotating authentication mechanisms to evade enforcement efforts. Some investigators now compare modern piracy ecosystems to organized cybercrime networks due to their scale and technical complexity.
Italy has intensified anti-piracy enforcement over the past several years through initiatives such as the controversial “Piracy Shield” system, which allows rapid blocking of websites accused of distributing copyrighted material. However, critics argue the system risks overblocking legitimate services and lacks sufficient oversight.
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