The Maharashtra cyber cell on July 12 arrested Thop TV owner Satish Venkateshwarlu from his Hyderabad residence. The 28-year-old IT engineer was distributing pirated content from OTT platforms and satellite channels and charging nominal subscription fees, causing huge loss to the platforms and the channels. He had lakhs of subscribers because of the nominal fees he charged and the content from a variety of channels and platforms which he offered in return. The complaint against Thop TV was filed by Viacom18 Media Ventures and Star India.
Venkateshwarlu was remanded to police custody till July 19 by a court in Bombay. The pirate used Thop TV as a platform and an app but he mostly used Telegram to distribute content. He was arrested under section 63 of the Copyright Act, sections 43, 66 and 66B of the Information Technology Act and sections 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.
The arrest of Satish Venkateshwarlu should be considered as a landmark judgement because it probably marks the first major arrest in a copyright case with such wide ramifications. It is estimated that broadcasters and OTT platforms lose about 25-30% of their revenue to piracy annually.