The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading anti-piracy coalition, joined forces with a global law enforcement content protection coalition to launch the sixth phase of “Operation 404,” a Latin-America based effort to shut down illegal websites and streaming services that infringe on the copyrights of films, TV shows, live sports, music and games.

Law enforcement agencies from Brazil, Peru, Argentina, the U.S. and the U.K. participated in the operation, which resulted in the blocking of 606 piracy sites – 328 in Peru, 238 in Brazil and 40 in the U.K. Eighteen illegal streaming apps were also taken down. The operation targeted several illegal streaming and IPTV service operators, and 23 search-and-seizure warrants were carried out – 22 in Brazil and 1 in Argentina. A domain seizure and forfeiture were executed in the U.S. as well. These figures may vary as the operation is ongoing.

“Operation 404,” which takes its name from the error message that indicates a website cannot be found, started in Brazil in 2019 and is now internationally recognized. This year was the first time two waves of Operation 404 were deployed within a calendar year.

The infringed content included movies, TV shows and major sports league matches from around the world, affecting all ACE members.

“Operation 404.6 was a great success, thanks to the joint efforts of global law enforcement and copyright protection agencies who share our mission to protect the creative marketplace,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE. “The Brazilian Ministry of Justice’s Cyberlab and ACE’s Latin America team were invaluable resources in the operation, reaffirming the impact of a global anti-piracy network whose joint mission is to identify criminal enterprises that brazenly flout copyright protection laws. More operations will follow.”

Among the law enforcement agencies that participated in the operation were Cyberlab, the U.S. Department of Justice, the City of London Police, the Buenos Aires Prosecutorial Office for Cyber Crimes, the Peruvian National Institute for the Defence and Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) and local state police chiefs, whose on-the-ground teams carried out the search and seizure warrants.

This article was first published on ACE