cyberpolice.gov.ua
Kinogo.co.ua was one of the busiest video piracy sites.
Ukraine's cyber police and investigators from the National Police have shut down four popular video piracy sites, the so called "online cinemas," namely kinogo.co.ua, uafilm.top, ukrfilm.top, and kino-hd.top.
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"Perpetrators earned several thousand dollars a month for advertising on the online pirate cinemas, splitting the money among themselves. One of the accomplices is an incumbent employee of the [State] Fiscal Service [SFS] of Ukraine," the cyber police said on its website on May 6.
The sites had more than 100,000 visitors per day. Kinogo.co.ua was one of the busiest video piracy sites.
Two brothers, 38 and 32, from Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region were involved in administering and promoting the said sites, the police said.
"To attract a wider audience, they spread information about their resources on social networks, creating relevant public groups," they added.
The cyber police raided the suspects' houses. In addition, a search was conducted in a regional office of the SFS where one of them works. Law enforcers seized equipment and sent it for examination.
A pretrial investigation is under way as part of criminal proceedings under Part 3 of Article 176 (violation of copyright and allied rights) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The defendants are facing a fine or imprisonment for up to six years.
Ukraine's cyber police on April 8 launched a nationwide anti-piracy operation, dubbed "Pirate."
As UNIAN reported earlier, the cyber police in December 2018shut down a popular dark web marketplace that illegally sold users' personal data.