Football fans warned over illegal streaming as site showing Premier League games on the cheap is shut down
POLICE have stamped out yet another illegal streaming site showing Premier League games without a proper subscription.
The owner of several dodgy streaming sites has been sentenced to 11 months in prison, and fined more than $90,000 (£70,000).
Illegal streaming sites offering premium content on the cheap have been cropping up worldwide.
They have become the focus of a nationwide crackdown in the UK, which has crossed borders into Lebanon, where the most recent conviction took place.
Lebanese authorities, in collaboration with the Lebanese Cyber Crime Bureau, helped prosecute the crook.
The defendant was found guilty of five criminal charges including various intellectual property and cybercrime-related offences.
The individual has been involved in “the egregious theft of content for many years,” according to Matt Hibbert, group director of Anti-Piracy at Sky.
The websites, which are unnamed, are to be shut down as per a court order.
All devices connected to the illegal streaming sites have been seized and wiped of data.
Police have also deleted all the accounts the supplier used to communicate with customers.
“This ruling sends a strong message that those who illegally steal our content will be pursued and can be brought to justice, no matter where in the world they are,” added Hibbert.
Kevin Plumb, general counsel at Premier League, said the case “highlights the severity with which courts across the world continue to treat all forms of piracy”.
He continued: “The case further demonstrates the Premier League’s commitment to protecting its intellectual property around the world.
“This is not only important to us and our broadcast partners, but it is essential for the future health of English football and the protection of our fans.”
Premier League, Sky and Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) – a coalition or over 50 film studios – put forward a joint complaint against the defendant.
ACE members include Amazon, Apple TV+, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
The coalition has nailed a number of illegal streaming services convictions, including the shutdown of a notorious live sports piracy ring based in Vietnam.
In December, ACE helped disband one of the largest sports piracy rings in the world.
The operation’s illicit sites, which gave cheap access to DAZN, secured 812million visits in the 12 months before it was abruptly shut down.
Warning over 'jailbroken' Fire Sticks
Illegal streaming can be delivered by a number of devices by one of the most common are 'jailbroken' Fire Sticks, which means a third-party media server software has been installed on to it.
The software most commonly used is called Kodi.
It can grant users unrestricted access to new features and apps the normal version of the device wouldn’t allow – but it is not legal to use in the UK.
But it becomes illegal when a box is used to stream subscription channels for free.
It is also illegal to buy or sell these modified devices which have become known as “fully-loaded” – a term that describes how the software has been altered to allow access to subscription-only channels.
“These devices are legal when used to watch legitimate, free to air, content,” the government said at the time.
“They become illegal once they are adapted to stream illicit content, for example TV programmes, films and subscription sports channels without paying the appropriate subscriptions.”