Spain's biggest piracy site shut down by Civil Guard

The Civil Guard has officially shut down Spain's biggest piracy website. The site, 'Cristal Azul', allowed 78'000 individuals to stream La Liga and La Liga 2 matches free of charge, thus causing a 42 million euros loss. Investigations began following a joint-complaint from La Liga and 'Movistar', revealing that the alleged perpetrator was a 37-year-old man, within the framework of operation ‘Corsario Azul’.

The Madrid Police Headquarters explained via a note on Friday that through the KODI player, which enables the streaming of videos, images and audios, detectives identified that one of the extensions or ‘add ons’ created by an external developer to the platform allowed the viewing of football for free.

As a result, the Technology Investigation Team (EDITE) were able to track down the source of the extensions or ‘add ons’ and determine that, following further findings, matches were re-broadcasted via Telegram. The investigations then focused on identifying the perpetrators through the analysis of the aliases that appeared in the source code within the extension where the paid football content was streamed.

After downloading the extension, detectives were able to find the responsible individual by cross-checking the data with police databases. The investigation terminated as a 37-year-old man was charged for market and consumer crime, with an estimated fraud of more than 42 million euros. The Telegram channels were also shut down, alongside the illegitimate program source code, thus taking down the whole site. 

With internationals currently taking place, La Liga matches are currently on pause, while La Liga 2 continues as regular on Saturday. Eibar and Racing Ferrol kick off matchday 15 of the Spanish second tier at 14:00 CET, with Real Zaragora and Malaga concluding it on Sunday night at the Estadio La Romareda.

 

November 15, 2024