Digital
AI strikes a divine chord with Rupam Dehi release
MUMBAI: Call it byte-sized bhakti, India’s first AI band, Trilok, has dropped its latest track ‘Rupam Dehi’, a devotional tribute to Goddess Durga. Drawing its name from the Argalastotra, the chant blends prayer with poetry while reimagining tradition for the digital age.
The music video stars Radhika Subramaniam, AI travel influencer from Collective Artists Network, and has been created entirely using AI. Set against the vibrant backdrop of Kolkata’s Durga Puja, the video captures the city’s dazzling pandals, rituals, and festive pulse, a heady mix of devotion and community spirit.
By weaving ancient verse into a contemporary soundscape, Trilok brings India’s biggest festival alive in a way that feels both timeless and cutting-edge.
‘Rupam Dehi’ is now streaming across major audio and social platforms, just in time to soundtrack the season of celebrations.
Digital
Global piracy networks evolve into multibillion-dollar crime syndicates
From bootleg DVDs to drug cartels, the new faces of organised crime are hiding in plain sight
LONDON: Gone are the days of the local “dodgy DVD” man at the car boot sale. According to a landmark investigation by Digital Citizens Alliance and IP House, the world of digital piracy has undergone a chilling transformation into a sophisticated, multibillion-dollar ecosystem of organised crime. Far from being a victimless hobby, illicit streaming is now the “financial architecture” for global syndicates involved in everything from human trafficking and narcotics to funding international terrorism.
The joint report, titled “Organized. Piracy. Crime.”, reveals that modern piracy networks have ditched traditional hierarchies for a decentralized, digital-first model that is harder to track than a ghost in the machine. These groups use a “franchise model,” selling turnkey piracy kits, complete with streaming panels and content libraries, to operators worldwide, allowing the “CEOs” of these syndicates to remain anonymous while smaller cells take the heat.
In November 2024, European authorities dismantled a pay-TV network serving 22 million subscribers that generated a staggering $288 million (£230 million) per month. During raids across 11 countries, police seized not just servers and cryptocurrency, but a small army’s worth of drugs and firearms.
The crossover between digital theft and violent crime is no longer a theory. In Brazil, investigators found that piracy has become a “Plan B” for drug traffickers, providing low-risk, high-reward revenue to buy weapons and expand operations.
Operation fake (Spain): Exposed a syndicate combining content theft with property fraud, drug trafficking, and industrial-scale money laundering, resulting in 30 arrests and $12.7 million in frozen assets.
The “Hells Angels” connection: A Canadian investigation linked a piracy operator to members of the Hells Angels, noting he had previously been sentenced for cocaine smuggling.
Terrorist funding: Groups like Hezbollah and D-Company (led by global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim) have historically used piracy proceeds to fund their activities. Al-Manar, a banned terrorist television network, currently uses illegal IPTV services to bypass U.S. broadcast bans.
Perhaps most disturbing is the link to human exploitation. North East Regional Organised Crime Unit detective sergeant James Woodcock stated that “illegal streaming services… help fund wider organised crime such as human trafficking, child sexual exploitation, drug supply and other sinister crimes”.
In Southeast Asia, an estimated 220,000 people are being held in “polycriminal” compounds in Myanmar and Cambodia, forced to run cyber scams and potentially power the very IPTV panels used by Western viewers.
These syndicates have become masters of financial disguise, moving money faster than a 5G connection. Using shell companies, “hawala” informal payment systems, and cryptocurrency “mixing” services, they convert illegal subscriptions into luxury cars, real estate, and jewelry.
A prime example is the U.S. prosecution of IPTV mogul Bill Omar Carrasquillo (known as “Omi in a Hellcat”), whose Gears TV service generated tens of millions of dollars used to fund a lifestyle of luxury vehicles and commercial property.
Despite these networks meeting every international definition of organised crime set by the United Nations and Interpol, the report argues that authorities are currently “bringing a knife to a digital gunfight”.
The authors are urging governments to adopt stricter “site-blocking” laws, already used in over 50 countries, to cut off overseas criminals from domestic markets. As digital piracy generates an estimated $40 billion globally each year, the message is clear: if it operates like the mafia and launders like the mafia, it’s time to treat it like the mafia.
While the public in countries like Brazil and India (over 60 per cent) clearly see the link between piracy and organised crime, recognition in the UK and US remains lower. It seems the biggest hurdle to stopping these syndicates isn’t just technology, but the realization by consumers that their monthly “bargain” stream might be paying for someone else’s misery.
