New arrest for pirating Canal+

The detainee accused of deploying a local network that sold the Canal+ signal with manipulated decoders faces sentences of between six months and two years in prison.

The Police have arrested M.P.N., 46 years old, resident of the city of Albacete, as the alleged perpetrator of a crime against industrial property and another for fraud in the use of telecommunications, by fraudulently enabling access to pay television channels and thus supplying protected audiovisual content, charging a monthly fee for it.

The detainee faces a possible sentence of between six months and two years in prison and the payment of an amount pending to be determined, as civil liability, which could amount to hundreds of thousands of euros.

The investigations began as a result of the complaint filed by Canal+ before the Technological Investigation Unit of the National Police Corps, for a crime against Intellectual Property and against Fraud in the Use of Telecommunications, by the procedure called 'Cardsharing' (redistribution over the Internet of the decoded signal, violating the rights of its legitimate owners).

Five decoders, two computers, external hard drives, a router, a Wi-Fi antenna and various documentation, including banking and parcel shipping documents, were found at the detainee's home. This allowed the police to determine the existence of two types of fraud: the fraudulent sale of audiovisual content signals after payment of a monthly fee (between 10 and 20 euros) and the sale (to these same users) of decoders previously modified and prepared by the fraudster imported from third countries at low cost, thus promoting greater profits.

The clandestine television device broadcast the Canal+ signal and distributed its audiovisual content to a local network that had approximately 60 or 70 clients.