Dutch police have undertaken a major action against a card-sharing ring in the Netherlands arresting four men and three women.
The arrests took place in Apeldoorn, Enschede, Den Haag and Vlagtwedde and followed complaints from the M7 Group, owners of the Dutch DTH platform Canal Digitaal, and Irdeto, reports Jarco Kriek in Totaal TV.
The police confiscated equipment including decoders, computers, and smart cards, and administration including lists of customers of the card-sharing group.
This is the first large-scale coordinated action by Dutch police involving digital TV piracy. The police started their action in 2011 because of the growing number of advertisements for card sharing services on various online market places such as eBay and Marktplaats.
“It is our intent for these raids to send a strong message that this type of TV piracy is illegal and will not be tolerated in The Netherlands,” said Ger Laning of the Dutch Police, in a statement.
“Piracy is a serious threat to pay media companies worldwide and to our local Dutch TV providers. We saw a unique opportunity to work with technology and anti-piracy experts like Irdeto to disrupt pirate activity. In the future, the Dutch Police will explore further actions against this form of cybercrime, which results in a revenue loss for Dutch pay TV operators.”
On November 14, the criminal court of Dinant, Belgium, convicted the operator of a card-sharing network hosting 400 users and his accomplice and awarded damages to injured parties.
