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Two Pirate IPTV Sellers Sentenced Following Sky InvestigationAndy Maxwell, 28 Sep 11:27 AM Despite widespread publicity and overt campaigns warning

Two Pirate IPTV Sellers Sentenced Following Sky Investigation Andy Maxwell, 28 Sep 11:27 AM Despite widespread publicity and overt campaigns warning of the criminal consequences, there's still no shortage of people prepared to openly sell piracy-configured set-top boxes and pirate IPTV subscriptions. In broad terms, awareness has improved over the last couple of years but, for those who got involved many years ago, historic perceptions may have been somewhat different. In the case of two men from Northern Ireland, an investigation by Sky and the police shouldn't have come as a surprise but the fact that it took five years to reach its ultimate conclusion probably wasn't anticipated. Pirate Set-Top Boxes, Pirate IPTV Services This week the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) revealed that detectives and broadcaster Sky carried out an investigation into the sale of devices "used for provision of pirated TV channels" and the "supply of streaming services (IPTV)." Between September 2018 and January 2019, the operation focused on a Belfast business run by two local men, 43-year-old Padraig McVicker and 27-year-old Gary Doherty. While PSNI provide no further details on the nature of the business, Companies House data reveals that McVicker was the sole director of a company involved in various aspects of the satellite TV trade. A second company, Free TV NI Limited, in which McVicker and Doherty both held directorships, was initially registered as a seller of second hand goods. While that may have been the case, adverts on platforms including Yell show that the company was also involved in satellite TV sales, installation, and repair. According to the ads, the company also sold various IPTV devices. In terms of legality, that's not an issue provided they're not configured for piracy but when they are, prosecutors have several opportunities available to them. Prosecutions and Guilty Pleas PSNI notes that after being arrested and charged, McVicker and Doherty both entered guilty pleas to a number of offenses under various legislation. Under Section 297A(a) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, both men admitted "Selling, Distributing Or Letting For Hire Or Exposing For Sale Or Hire An Unauthorized Decoder." The legislation states that "a person who makes, imports, sells or lets for hire any unauthorized decoder shall be guilty of an offense." Those who can prove they didn't know that a decoder was unauthorized do not commit a crime, but that doesn't appear to have been the case here. McVicker also pled guilty to an offense contrary to Section 126(1) of the Communications Act 2003, which relates to the possession of "apparatus" for dishonestly obtaining electronic services. Under that legislation, a person is guilty of an offense "if he has in his possession or under his control" anything that may be used for obtaining an electronic communications service or connection with obtaining such a service. Again, intent plays a key role here. McVicker further admitted possessing criminal property, contrary to Section 329 (1)(c) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Sentencing at Belfast Crown Court At Belfast Crown Court on Tuesday, McVicker was sentenced to eight months in prison, with a further eight months on license for offenses under Section 297A(a) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. For possession of apparatus for dishonestly obtaining services contrary to Section 126(1) of the Communications Act, he received a prison sentence of six months, although that will be served concurrently. Gary Doherty's offenses contrary to Section 297A(a) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act earned him 175 hours of community service. PSNI and Sky Welcome Convictions Commenting on the sentences, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Phillips, Police Service Lead on Intellectual Property Crime, highlighted the key differences between standard IPTV devices and those that have been modified. "IPTV devices are legal when used to view free or legitimate paid-for subscription services and channels, but once adapted or reconfigured to stream content without the appropriate licenses and consent of creators, they become illegal," he said. "People think these are victimless crimes but often behind these services are international organized crime gangs, who engage in the most serious of offenses," he added. PSNI made no claims that the Belfast men were part of an international organized crime gang but took the opportunity to extend a warning to users of IPTV services. "Users and subscribers of illegal services should also be aware that they too are committing an offense for which they can be prosecuted," he said. Broadcaster Sky said it welcomed the sentences and joined PSNI in issuing a warning to users. "We were pleased to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland in taking this action, both to prevent access to stolen Sky content and also to protect consumers from the real risks of accessing content in this way," said Matt Hibbert, Sky's Director of Anti-Piracy, UK and Ireland. Sky did not clarify what risks, if any, users of the convicted men's devices were exposed to. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Under Hollywood Pressure, Vietnam Cracks Down On….Live Sports Piracy Andy Maxwell, 27 Sep 08:54 PM When Hollywood sets its sights on something it wants to achieve in the piracy landscape, victory may not come this week or even next year. The MPA has been around for 100 years; it definitely has patience to see out a few more. In Vietnam, despite changes in the law and visits by high-ranking MPA and ACE representatives, patience will be required to reduce piracy. The world's largest pirate sites seem to operate freely there and even when giants like Zoro.to and 9anime came under direct pressure from ACE recently, immediate respawning under new domains was hardly conducive to confidence building. MPA/ACE have enjoyed success, the closure of 2embed is just one example. But with Vietnam-based movie streaming giant Fmovies also announcing a domain switch/minor rebranding to Fmoviesz recently, more progress is needed and in an announcement this week, the authorities reported just that. 1,000 Piracy Websites Blocked During an anti-piracy seminar held in Hanoi on Tuesday, data compiled by the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, a department under the Ministry of Information and Communications revealed that, during the past 12 months, 1,000 copyright-infringing sites were blocked in Vietnam. The blocking reportedly took place between August 2022 and August 2023, but there's not much for the MPA to celebrate, at least not in the short term. It appears that most of the targets were sites offering pirate football streams, not the platforms offering movies, TV shows, manga, and anime that the MPA would like to shut down. Reading between the lines, these blocking efforts are considered a step in the right direction but were probably ineffective overall. Blocking is 98% Successful Until it Immediately Isn't A representative of the state-run Vietnam Digital Copyright Center said that blocking of the 1,000 sites (a closer view reveals that's actually the number of domains) was carried out in coordination with Vietnamese internet service providers. A similar approach last year allegedly reduced visits to pirate streaming sites by 98%, but general commentary on the scheme tends to undermine that. Current blocking efforts are described as inconsistent, with some ISPs quickly blocking sites but others taking a much more leisurely approach. Given that sites reportedly switch to new domains in a claimed five to 10 minutes, blocking faces immediate challenges. A football streaming site known as 'Xoi Lac TV' is claimed to be the most notorious repeat offender and by ignoring bans and switching domains, it has remained online for around five years. Pirate Sites Funded By Illegal Advertising Media reports from 2018 indicate that Xoi Lac TV and many other sites were blocked on copyright grounds. And when 500 sites were reportedly blocked in 2021/22, copyright was again the headline reason. Indeed, Vietnam already has a site-blocking mechanism in place; a verified complaint from a rightsholder can lead to the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (AEBI) instructing an online platform to remove content. If that doesn't happen within the allocated timeframe, ISPs can be instructed to block the sites. Why that doesn't happen to more sites more often isn't clear, but there are other ways pirate sites can find themselves in more immediate trouble. When football streaming sites are blocked in Vietnam, discussion of illegal betting advertising on the platforms usually appears as part of the discussion. Xoi Lac TV has appeared on lists of domains blocked due to illegal gambling promotions and the government seems very willing to bring those involved to justice. Late 2022 an expert with Vietnam's National Cyber Security Center said that the operators of local streaming sites obtain foreign streams, embed their own logos, and then use the content to promote gambling and fraud. "The general method of these websites is to steal TV copyrights, 'push' the search engine optimization (SEO) to the top on Google to attract traffic, and then receive ads for gambling and fraud channels," the expert said. Xoi Lac TV streams reportedly promote the gambling game portal Zovip and sports betting sites including 1bet88 and fun88. Vietnam Faces "Overseas Challenges" This type of gambling-focused business model is largely absent from the large sites the MPA would like Vietnam to shut down. Whether that helps them to survive is up for debate but based on comments before and during the event on Tuesday, Vietnam isn't averse to highlighting enforcement difficulties it faces in 'other' countries. Xoi Lac TV is reportedly among around 70 football piracy sites that together generated around 1.5 billion views in 2022/23. However, figures cited by authorities in Vietnam claim that 200 local pirate movie sites only attract 120 million visits per month overall. Fmovies – now known as Fmoviesz – receives around 119.5 million visits each month in its own right. Traffic estimates aside, Pham Hoang Hai, Director of the Digital Content Copyright Center, notes that all of these sites have something in common; they use foreign domain names and services to hide their identities. It was previously highlighted that when Xoi Lac TV operated from Xoilac.tv, it was difficult to trace its operator due to the domain's registration in the United States. That wasn't made any easier by the site allegedly using a U.S. IP address and U.S. hosting. Blocking or shutting down websites isn't something to be taken lightly and it appears Vietnam will take its time before deciding how to proceed against the largest pirate platforms. Meanwhile, it's being reported that the government has been drafting new rules that will compel ISPs to kick citizens off the internet if they share "law-breaking information." "The move threatens to throttle web access further in a country where an estimated 1,000 websites, from those of the BBC to Freedom House, are already blocked," Nikkei reports. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Man Faces Prison Sentence for Reselling Hacked Streaming Service Accounts Ernesto Van der Sar, 27 Sep 01:20 PM There is little doubt that video and music streaming services have taken the Internet by storm over the past decade. An entire "on-demand" generation is growing up, with the streaming business model now generating billions of dollars in revenue. Competing With Piracy This growth was spurred on by piracy. When Netflix first launched its streaming services, the company openly positioned itself as a piracy competitor. And indeed, in the early years, many casual pirates were drawn to streaming platforms. In recent years, this early selling point has been pushed into the background. With the launch of many more streaming services targeting the same audience, attractively broad content selections have given way to exclusive releases in a bid to lure customers. The video streaming wars have reached a point where many people can no longer afford to pay for everything they want to see. Ironically, this drives them back to illegal options such as pirate sites and platforms where hacked accounts are listed for sale. Streaming Service Reseller Faces Prison These 'hacked' accounts, which belong to third-party customers, are sold through a wide variety of sites. Many people fall for these cheap offers without asking questions. The resellers, however, are not so innocent. This week, the Danish National Unit for Special Crime (NSK) announced that a 29-year-old man from Odense has been charged with illegally reselling 500,000 leaked login credentials and now faces a potential prison sentence. A subsection of these accounts are logins for streaming services including HBO Max, Paramount+ and Viaplay. These accounts were sold through a dedicated website at a fraction of the official price. According to Brian Kaas Borgstrøm, Deputy prosecutor at NSK, the accounts on sale were likely obtained through data leaks. "It is our opinion that the defendant has used a data leak to obtain the login information of random paying customers at a number of popular streaming services and then sold the information both collectively and individually. This has given buyers the opportunity to abuse the accounts of real customers." This doesn't mean that the mentioned streaming services were compromised. People often use the same credentials across various sites, so hackers can use third-party leaks to hijack streaming accounts. Not an Incident The Danish Rights Alliance is pleased with the police action and notes that this isn't the first time that someone has been caught reselling login credentials. In July, a 31-year-old man from North Jutland was arrested for a similar offense. He is believed to be part of a bigger group that, in addition to hacked logins, also sold pirate IPTV subscriptions. "Cases like this help to make visible that criminals are constantly developing new models to illegally make content available for their own profit – regardless of the fact that their crime goes beyond unsuspecting people," says Rights Alliance Director Maria Fredenslund. Major Streaming Services Unite These types of criminals are able to run their profitable businesses because consumers are eager to save on streaming subscription costs. These types of enforcement actions may deter some criminals, but it doesn't solve the underlying problem. Interestingly, several of the largest streaming services including Netflix, HBO, and Disney launched a new coalition yesterday that has "affordability" high on the agenda. The "Streaming Innovation Alliance" (SIA) conducted a detailed survey which suggests that more than half of all consumers believe that streaming services are too expensive, while 75% indicate that costs are highly important. This sentiment explains why some consumers resort to illegal options such as piracy and cheap hacked accounts. Unfortunately, however, the Alliance informs TorrentFreak that it's not their goal to make services cheaper. Instead, it's an effort to push back against taxes and costly regulations that could make the services even more expensive. Affordability as a piracy driver is not on the agenda yet. That's a shame perhaps, as the Alliance could be a great way to find creative solutions to make progress on the cost front in other ways. 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