Italian law enforcement has confiscated a piracy application that illegally broadcast Sky, DAZN, and Netflix by using stolen legitimate accounts.

      Operazione Tutto Chiaro targeted over 100 locations in Italy, France, and Germany, focusing on a system that retransmitted legitimate subscription codes every three minutes. On Friday, Italy's Guardia di Finanza announced the dismantling of an audiovisual piracy ring that illegally streamed content from Sky, DAZN, Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify to thousands of users via an app called CINEMAGOAL. Authorities conducted over 100 searches and seizures throughout Italy on Thursday, with simultaneous actions in France and Germany coordinated by Eurojust.

      The investigation was led by the Bologna prosecutor's office and managed by the Ravenna unit of the financial police. Investigators described the operation as sufficiently unique to deserve attention. CINEMAGOAL did not stream from an unauthorized library in the conventional manner. Instead, the app, installed on users' devices, connected to a foreign server and decrypted live audiovisual content using the credentials of fake accounts holding legitimate subscriptions. Virtual machines positioned within Italy captured the active subscription codes every three minutes and sent them, nearly in real time, to paying subscribers. Consequently, the end product was a legitimate signal generated from an account in which no one had ever registered.

      The Guardia di Finanza reported that the system was purposely designed to avoid detection. Since each end-user decrypted content through the foreign server rather than connecting directly to a streaming service, there was no traceable IP address linked to the viewing session. According to the police, this aspect was prominently marketed to potential customers by the resellers.

      More than seventy individuals across Italy managed the distribution, selling annual subscriptions priced between €40 and €130, depending on the package, and accepted payments in cryptocurrency or through fictitious foreign accounts. They retained a portion of the earnings and forwarded the remainder to the organizers in a typical tiered reseller structure.

      To seize the foreign servers containing the decryption data and the application’s source code, the prosecutor's office enlisted Eurojust to facilitate simultaneous operations in France and Germany. Approximately 200 agents were deployed in the Italian raids, as reported by the Ravenna unit.

      Investigators also noted that this same network was concurrently operating the more well-known pezzotto form of piracy in IPTV, indicating that CINEMAGOAL was part of a larger operation rather than an isolated scheme. In an initial estimate conducted with the affected platforms, the Guardia di Finanza estimated the losses from uncollected subscription rights to be around €300 million. Investigators warned that this figure is provisional and subject to revision as seized materials are examined.

      The first 1,000 subscribers identified through the investigation are receiving administrative fines ranging from €154 to €5,000, with additional names anticipated to follow. The charges being investigated include audiovisual piracy, unauthorized access to computer systems, and computer fraud. The case is currently in the preliminary investigation phase, and the Guardia di Finanza emphasized that any criminal liability will only be determined by a final conviction.

      Italy has undertaken successive crackdowns against pirate IPTV over the past two years, primarily centered around the Piracy Shield blocking system administered by AGCOM, which is advocated by Serie A and major broadcasters. Operazione Tutto Chiaro indicates that the next wave of evasion has moved beyond simple geoblocking. Instead of mirroring a stolen feed, CINEMAGOAL concealed itself within the platforms’ own access controls.

      European piracy figures have been steadily rising as streaming costs accumulate, and the technical sophistication of the material seized this week suggests it is less surprising that the supply side continues to find ways to meet ongoing demand.