Crime
Sections
Highlight
Sections
Highlight
Melchor Sáiz-Pardo
Madrid
Monday, 18 November 2024, 14:51
Police have taken down Spain's most popular football streaming channel, Cristal Azul. The site offered free streaming of football matches of the Spanish Primera y Segunda divisions to some 78,000 users from all over the world, mainly Spanish-speaking. The site was accessed via links on Telegram, and caused economic damage of more than 42.5 million euros for the companies that own the rights to the Spanish divisions, according to investigators.
The ringleader of the network, a 37-year-old man, has been identified and is "under investigation", but has not been arrested, sources said.
At the start of October, the Guardia Civil's technological investigation unit, after months of work, managed to "block and eliminate all the Telegram channels" where the matches were accessed, in addition to having erased the "programming code used illegitimately".
On 9 October, the administrator of the pirate streaming service announced the channel was closing "immediately and forever, as things have become very ugly". By then, the suspect had already been questioned by Guardia Civil. Many users of the illegal platform linked the closure of the channel to the arrest of Telegram's owner and CEO Pavel Durov in France on 24 August. Pavel, after his release, promised to be much tougher on piracy Telegram and said he would collaborate with authorities to get to the ringleaders of these networks.
The police investigation started following a joint complaint filed by LaLiga and Movistar, owners of the rights, after they realised that links to connect to their broadcasts were available to any Telegram user. Using the KODI media player or media centre, which allows the organisation and playback of various types of digital media (videos, images and audio) on a delayed, online or streaming basis, investigators detected that one of the extensions or 'add ons' created by an external developer to the platform, allowed the viewing of football matches outside the pay-per-view encrypted environment.
The Guardia Civil then focused on finding out where the football matches were being broadcast. Following the steps of the source code of the extension or 'add on' and after various searches, they located this place in Telegram.
Investigators started with the focus on the nicknames or pseudonyms that appear through the source code within the extension where the paid football content was streamed free of charge to more than 78,000 people.
After downloading the extension from the platform, it was possible to verify that it belonged to a specific user and, following searches in various police databases, the suspect was identified.
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Reporta un error en esta noticia
Necesitas ser suscriptor para poder votar.