While IPTV has become one of the most popular methods of watching TV on the Internet, its illegal use has not gone unnoticed by rights holders or the police. Not all IPTV devices are illegal, but those that are can have serious consequences for their sellers, and even for their users, if fines are imposed for watching pirated IPTV.
In Europe, there have already been arrests and convictions of almost a million dollars for selling devices to watch football, and now the latest operation against this type of crime has been carried out in the United Kingdom. There, the police arrested three people, in addition to confiscating a series of pre-programmed devices to watch licensed content without having to pay a subscription.
The operation was carried out in collaboration with FACT, an anti-piracy group that has already participated in the arrest of those responsible for pirate services; as in this case, the key lies in the use of television devices such as the Amazon Fire Stick, which are modified with their own applications and configurations to access illegal servers where pirated content is broadcast.
With these devices, it is easy to watch football matches for free or with a cheaper subscription than the official service. The user only has to connect the device to their TV via the HDMI connection and access the illegal server using the pre-installed application. As part of the investigation, and in addition to the three arrested, the FACT group sent “Warnings” to 40 “IPTV operators” so that they abandon this type of illegal practices.
Although the organization did not explain the function of these “IPTV operators”, it is possible that they were people who were involved in one way or another in the distribution of the devices or in the illegal service, although since they were not arrested, it is very likely that their involvement in the project was low.
Devices for watching pirated IPTV confiscated by police
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Regardless, the operation marks the end of a pirate service that offered access to a wide variety of TV channels and streaming services; including Sky, which owns the rights to the Premier League and has come forward to work with the police to identify the sellers of these modified devices. In addition, Sky has launched an operation to remove advertisements and social media posts relating to these devices; more than 3,000 advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X have been removed and the accounts used to publish them have been suspended.
The three, all men, were initially arrested for various offences including fraud, copyright infringement, possession of criminal property and drug possession. After the devices found at their home were seized by court order, the three men were released.
