Three arrested in European illegal streaming network
The pirates made around CHF2 million from the sale of set top boxes that streamed pirated content.
Keystone / Karl-josef Hildenbrand
Three suspects have been arrested in Switzerland as part of a pan-European investigation into a pirated film streaming network.
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The European judicial cooperation agency Eurojust said the joint operation took place between Switzerland, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Monaco. The Swiss authorities acted in response to complaints filed by American film studios.
The Swiss-based suspects, who were arrested and questioned on Tuesday, had sold a multimedia box called “KBox” which offers reception of copyright-protected content, according to the police. This box works with an Android application system and is sold with an application called “Catalog”.
The KBox provides streaming access to more than 7,000 films and 75,000 episodes of series. According to the initial findings of the investigation, around 20,000 KBoxes have been sold netting the pirates a sum of around CHF2 million ($2.2 million).
Besides the arrest, a website promoting the service was blocked and seven bank accounts in Switzerland were seized.
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