Mumbai: Disney Star has registered a FIR (First Information Report) against piracy groups Tamil Rockers, Tamil MV, Tamil Blasters and Pikashow on Wednesday at the Bengaluru cyber cell.
The case has been registered under Information Technology Act 2008 under Section 66, Copyright Act 1957 under Section 63 and 65 and IPC (Indian Penal Code) 1860 under Section 420 against R Kumaravel and R Radhakrishnan. As per the report accessed by Indiantelevision.com, R Kumaravel resides in the Yelahanka suburb of Bengaluru city.
While Tamil Rockers, Tamil Blasters and Tamil MV are illegal piracy websites, Pikashow is a third party standalone mobile application that facilitates the free access to content from all major broadcasters and OTT platforms. It has over 12 million downloads.
Disney Star noticed that its Hotstar Specials such as Rudra: The Edge of Darkness, Bigg Boss Ultimate (Tamil), Human, Parampara, Escaype Live and Anupama: Namaste America, its movie library such as "Tadap", "Kaun Pravin Tambe", "Atrange Re", "Hum Do Humare Do", "Sanak", "Badhaai Do", "12th Man", "Taanakkaran", "Maaran", "Bheemla Nayak" and "Bheeshma Parvam" were being leaked by these piracy groups. Its linear TV content from channels Star Plus, Star Gold, Star World and Star Sports was made available on the Pikashow app. The company tried to register a case with the Tamil Nadu cyber cell unsuccessfully for three months finally taking the decision to file the report with Bengaluru cyber cell.
The piracy group sources their content directly from theatre/OTT platforms and releases it on the internet. They distribute content through torrent, third party cyberlockers, user-generated platforms and offshore servers.
The group initially focused on leaking content in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam but of late they’ve expanded their rogue operations to include other languages such as Hindi. The cumulative traffic on these websites is estimated to be 64 million. Theatrical movies and OTT content are the biggest victim of such piracy groups. All theatrical releases are made available on these illegal websites within 24 hours of release. They are able to create new mirror domains to avoid internet service provider (ISP) blocking.
In March last year, an investigation by the crime branch of Faridabad revealed the operations of Boss IPTV that was distributing illegal set-top-boxes (STBs) through various vendors after a police complaint was filed by live TV platform Yupp TV. The company was allegedly stealing TV signals from various Indian and international broadcasters & offering them via its platform.
As major media companies increase their presence on the internet as a means to distribute its content, the crackdown on illegal piracy groups continues.
