The persecution of pirate IPTV businesses intensifies every day.There are many global police forces that pursue this type of piracy.In many countries in Europe, pirate IPTV services, providers and resellers have become prime targets for entertainment industry groups.In May 2019, the audiovisual rights management group EGEDA (Entity for the Management of Rights of Audiovisual Producers) filed a criminal complaint against Compraccam, a provider of pirated IPTV subscriptions and card-sharing that provided services to at least 15,000 clients in Spain.The police investigation followed the trace of Compraccam's business and it was identified that two of its leaders were from the cities of Salamanca and Zamora.The police operation continued its course with two operations in February and March 2020, in which documents and account information were seized, computer equipment, mobile phones, more than 10,000 euros in cash and even seven gold bars.According to police reports, this group was led in those two Castilian-Leonese provinces.The one from Zamora performed tasks such as the administration of the IPTV panel and the attention of users through online messages.The man from Salamanca was the administrator of a service that redirected users to streams that allowed illegal access to sports content, movies and television programs.In total, searches were carried out in six places and seven people were arrested, one in Zamora and another in Salamanca, one in Córdoba, three in Valencia and another in Málaga.Their accounts were frozen after being charged with intellectual property offences, and estimates are that the group cost rights holders around €11.8 million.The group's website and associated pirate services were shut down.The other five members were considered to be in charge of distributing the infringing subscriptions to clients, for which their importance in the criminal organization was secondary.The Provincial Court of Zamora, the judicial body in charge of the sentence as it is the headquarters of the main ringleader, sentenced the seven defendants to crimes of fraud against this pirate IPTV organization for facilitating access to protected content.The two leaders were sentenced to 23 months in prison, another two to sentences of 18 months and 16 months, and the remaining three received sentences of 9 months each.They are released from prison for pirate IPTVHowever, the defendants will avoid an immediate prison sentence after pleading guilty and taking steps to pay back the money they earned during the fraud period.They have already returned most of the 1.2 million euros they won and 250,000 euros remain as an outstanding amount.If any of the defendants commit any new crimes during the next two years, he will be sent directly to prison to serve his sentence.Source > Zamora's Opinion