Online piracy: 4 OneFlix employees arrested; streaming site shut
During primary interrogation, the accused admitted to making over Tk1 crore in the last six months through this
Police have arrested four employees of streaming platform OneFlix on charge of running their site by pirating content and distributing it on their domain through subscriptions.
An E-Fraud Investigation team, under the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit, of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested them during separate drives in the capital's Adabor and Motijheel areas on Monday (5 February).
The arrestees are Sadman Sakib, Md Ejaj Ahmed, Md Rabib Hossain and Rahat Khan.
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Law enforcers also seized six hard disks, four mobile phones, and 10 SIM cards from the possessions of the arrestees.
The illegal OneFlix server was also taken down in a special operation.
A case was filed against the gang under the CyberSecurity Act with Mohammadpur Police Station on 17 January.
Barrister Mahin M Rahman, advocate, Bangladesh Supreme Court Legal Advisor, OTT Guild of Bangladesh, who guided the legal process on behalf of the complainant, said, "Nowadays, OTT platforms of the country are making high quality contents for the public. And a healthy, legal and competitive environment exists in the country.
"At this time, Bangladesh Police has taken steps against piracy for the development and flourishment of the OTT industry, platform owners and artists."
He said through this, the profits of the stakeholders will be legal and generate tax for the state coffers.
"I hope such actions against piracy by the DMP's Cyber Crime Investigation Department will continue," Barrister Mahin added.
Following investigation after filing of the case, the E-Fraud Investigation of Cyber Crime Investigation Department identified the gang members and arrested them yesterday.
"It is a digital scam and an illegal streaming business that has no ethical or legal foundation. Our cyber unit's action against all illegal streaming domains, including Oneflix, will continue," SP Nazmul Islam of the Cyber Unit of CTTC said.
According to police, the gang pirated numerous movies, including those registered in Bangladesh, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney Hotstar.
During primary interrogation, the accused admitted to making over Tk1 crore in the last six months through this.
The arrestees were sent to court through appropriate procedures, said a DMP release.
The illegal OneFlix server was also taken down in a special operation.
