A massive international investigation has led to the arrest of many people suspected of film piracy.
Under the leadership of Homeland Security και Europol και σε συνεργασία με τις αρχές επιβολής του νόμου σε 18 χώρες η έρευνα επικεντρώθηκε σε έναν ring πειρατείας ταινιών, πιο γνωστό σαν Sparks Group. The Group allegedly facilitated the illegal distribution of blockbuster films.
"Dozens of servers controlled by the Sparks Group went offline today around the world, from North America to Europe and Asia," the US Department of Justice said in a statement. Press release. The Sparks Group used these servers to illegally store and distribute copyrighted content to members around the world.
“Sparks Group members reproduce and distribute hundreds of movies and TV shows ahead of their release date, including nearly every movie released by major studios production, causing millions of dollars in losses to the film and television industry," said Homeland Security's Peter Fitzhugh.
To obtain unreleased films, Sparks members allegedly posed as DVD and Blu-Ray retailers in order to trick legitimate distributors into giving them films before their release dates. And while the pirates promised not to distribute the content before the release dates, they removed any copyright protections and released it on various services streaming and from torrent sites.
The Sparks Group included well-known groups (SPARKS, DRONES, ROVERS, GECKOS, SPRINTER, ALLiANCE, DEMAND, HD4U, LAZERS, FTP) from Scene but also from the p2p community.
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.542949/gov.uscourts.nysd.542949.12.0.pdf
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.529663/gov.uscourts.nysd.529663.5.0.pdf
https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.542945/gov.uscourts.nysd.542945.9.0.pdf
According to Europol, officers seized more than 60 servers operated by Group Sparks in various countries, including Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, South Korea and many more.
