Serie A Joins Google To Prevent Online Piracy, Italian Police Block Millions Of Illegal Accounts

Illustration of Serie A. (Source: thelaziali.com)

JAKARTA - Italy's highest professional football competition, Serie A announced a deal with Google, related to the prevention of online piracy broadcasts of Serie A matches on Monday 17 May.

Serie A stated, Google agreed to remove from the content platform a number of video applications that illegally allow users to watch live broadcasts of Serie A matches.

The deal is part of Serie A's efforts to curb online piracy in recent years, as well as to protect the value of television broadcast rights, which make up the majority of the competition's revenue.

"Google has removed apps that illegally reproduce content owned by Serie A, from its Play Store," the league said in a statement, according to Reuters Monday, May 17.

"Under the new agreement, Google will use innovative instruments to detect future copyright infringement," the statement continued without elaborating further.

The deal is a follow-up to the blocking of 1.5 million illegal users who watched Live Serie A matches.

Illustration of an Italian Serie A match. (Wikimedia Commons/PascalMondragon)

In a statement reported by Reuters on May 14, the Italian Police said more than 200 police were involved in an online anti-piracy operation.

As a result, 45 people were secured and charged with alleged conspiracy to illegally access information technology (IT) infrastructure and commit fraud. Police also carried out a massive seizure of IT devices that supported online piracy.

According to the Italian Police, the massive seizure of central IT systems carried out in Messina City, Sicily Province, ensured the blocking of 80 percent of content streamed illegally over the internet, utilizing so-called internet protocol (IP) television.

Please note, the content is first obtained legally and then converted into an audio and video stream to the end user's home.

Blocked accounts account for about 11 percent of total users of streaming services in Italy based on sector estimates provided by Ampere Analysis.