08-28-2020 , 10:33 PM
https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollac...59574457e6 One Of World's Biggest Piracy Groups Taken Down
Emma Woollacott
Emma Woollacott Senior Contributor
Cybersecurity A joint operation between the US Department of Justice and authorities in 7 other countries has brought down one of the world’s biggest piracy groups.
The Sparks Group is believed to have been illegally distributing movies and TV shows online since 2011. According to Europol, it's managed to obtain nearly every movie released by major production studios in the US since the investigation started in 2016, and has caused tens of millions of US dollars in losses.
Members of the group got hold of pre-release content by pretending to be DVD and Blu-ray disc retailers. They then used special software to crack the copyright protections and reproduce and encode the content in high definition before releasing it on streaming platforms, peer-to-peer and torrent networks.
Three men have been charged: Umar Ahmad (39, aka Artist), George Bridi (50), and Jonatan Correa (36, aka Raid). Bridi, a UK national, has been arrested in Cyprus, and Correa in Kansas, US. Ahmad, a Norwegian citizen, is still at large.
Servers have been taken down in Canada, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
Emma Woollacott
Emma Woollacott Senior Contributor
Cybersecurity A joint operation between the US Department of Justice and authorities in 7 other countries has brought down one of the world’s biggest piracy groups.
The Sparks Group is believed to have been illegally distributing movies and TV shows online since 2011. According to Europol, it's managed to obtain nearly every movie released by major production studios in the US since the investigation started in 2016, and has caused tens of millions of US dollars in losses.
Members of the group got hold of pre-release content by pretending to be DVD and Blu-ray disc retailers. They then used special software to crack the copyright protections and reproduce and encode the content in high definition before releasing it on streaming platforms, peer-to-peer and torrent networks.
Three men have been charged: Umar Ahmad (39, aka Artist), George Bridi (50), and Jonatan Correa (36, aka Raid). Bridi, a UK national, has been arrested in Cyprus, and Correa in Kansas, US. Ahmad, a Norwegian citizen, is still at large.
Servers have been taken down in Canada, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.