Owner arrested, users may also be punished

Maharashtra Cyber ​​Police has arrested an IT engineer from Hyderabad for illegally streaming the content of many popular OTT platforms and satellite channels including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney + Hotstar on its app. This engineer named Satish Venkateshwarlu has developed an app named Thop TV, which used to stream the content of many famous OTT platforms through this app. This type of work is considered illegal and there are provisions for strict punishment for doing so.

Satish Venkateshwarlu, who was arrested from Telangana capital Hyderabad on Monday, has been sent to seven-day police custody by a Mumbai court. First, Viacom 18 Media and some other broadcasters had complained to the Maharashtra Cyber ​​Cell that the Thop TV app was streaming their content on its platform without their permission. The complainant said that due to this illegal action of this app, he had to suffer a huge loss in revenue.

After this act, Maharashtra Cyber ​​​​Cell came into action and arrested 28-year-old engineer Satish Venkateshwarlu from Hyderabad who developed and ran the app. The engineer has been booked under Sections 43, 66 and 66B of the IT Act, 2000, along with Section 63 of the Copyright Act and Section 420 and Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Thop TV is almost 2 years old app. It was not available on Google Play, rather it had to be sideloaded through an APK available online. This was a completely illegal app, because it showed the content of Netflix, Prime Video, Disney + Hotstar, Voot and many other OTT platforms on unpaid platforms without the permission of the broadcasters.