"Thop TV" owner arrested by Maharashtra Cyber Police for pirating OTT content

 

On Monday, The Maharashtra Cyber Police arrested a Hyderabad based IT Engineer for allegedly developing and running a mobile app which streamed pirated content of various OTT platforms and satellite channels.

The accused, Satish Venkateshwarlu (28), was arrested from the Telangana Captial and has now been remanded to seven days of Police Custody by a local Court in Mumbai.

According to the Police, Venkateshwarlu had been running the app titled "Thop TV" for the last two years. The app has lakhs of viewers and around 5000 paid subscribers.

This arrest was made after Viacom 18 Media Private Limited along with an unnamed broadcaster approached the Maharashtra Cyber with their complaint alleging that the app was broadcasting their content without authorisation.

During Investigation it was found out that the app charged a nominal fee of just Rs 35 and was highly popular among users on social media.

The accused would use an inbuilt API (Application Programming Interface) to steal the content from other platforms.

After their complaint, a case was registered under Sections 43,66 and 66B of the information Technology Act,2000, Section 63 of Copyright Act and Section 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).