MADRID, 20 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
In a court ruling, the Argentine courts have ordered Google to ban the use of the Magis TV app, leading to the blocking of all domains related to the illegal Internet television service, according to a statement from LaLiga.
This ruling, once Magis TV’s infrastructures have been blocked, prohibits the app from being loaded again in the Android environment. In addition, it will be disabled from devices that had already downloaded the application prior to this ruling, something that had not happened before in any final ruling anywhere in the world.
According to LaLiga, Google plays “a key role as an intermediary in the entire operational chain of audiovisual fraud”, which is why the association estimates that “if it collaborated, piracy could be reduced by up to 80%”.
The case was initiated by a complaint from the Alliance against Audiovisual Piracy (Alianza), based on its objectives for Operation 404. Following the ruling, LaLiga committed to supporting the investigation carried out by the UFEIC and Alianza with technical reports, “given that its content was being stolen by Magis TV from different distributors.”
The Audiovisual Anti-Fraud team in Spain and the representation in Argentina have compiled reports and evidence to cooperate with the case, which have already been delivered to the Prosecutor’s Office. “This resolution represents a global example in the fight against piracy and fraud of audiovisual content,” said the president of LaLiga, Javier Tebas.
“Not only has the blocking of all domains associated with the illegal service and its technological infrastructure been achieved, but it has also been ruled that Google must prevent the use of illegal applications,” the president added.
The court decision was made in the context of a case in which networks selling TV Boxes were investigated in Buenos Aires and Misiones. These are devices illegally used to transmit signals from cable TV operators, which in these cases already had the Magis TV application installed.
The ruling came after an extensive investigation by the Cybercrime Prosecutor’s Office at the Specialized Cybercrime Unit (UFEIC) to shut down the largest unified audiovisual piracy network in the region and also confiscate TV Boxes with pirated applications that are sold on the Internet and social networks.
In total, between Argentina and Brazil, five people have been arrested and now face criminal charges, while 675 websites and 14 streaming apps have been taken down, Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security confirmed.
Magis TV is the largest illegal Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service in LATAM by volume of monthly visits, with 55 million visits in the last 6 months in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. “It is an application that steals audiovisual content from various programmers and distributors to offer it directly to users,” LaLiga explained.