POLICE have targeted 30 Brits in their latest crackdown effort against illegal streaming – and warn they will catch others.
Addresses up and down the UK have been threatened with criminal prosecutions in a two-week enforcement operation.
A 42-year-old man from Newport, Wales, was arrested as part of the move, over his suspected involvement in illegal IPTV operations, including the sale of illicit Fire Sticks.
He remains under investigation and could face criminal charges.
The popular Fire Stick is modified by criminals to make premium content available on the cheap, showing Premier League games, movies and Sky channels.
Police visited other suspects in person and issued cease-and-desist warnings around London, Cheshire, Kent, Sussex, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, the East and West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Northumbria, and North Yorkshire.
Kieron Sharp, boss of anti piracy group FACT urged people to heed the warning, saying those who have ignored them in the past now face arrests and serious criminal charges.
And while the operation targeted those distributing devices to illegal stream, he told users they too face consequences.
“We strongly advise anyone involved in these activities to stop immediately,” he said.
“If you’re supplying or using illicit streaming devices or illegal IPTV subscriptions, take this as a clear warning: you are breaking the law and risk facing serious consequences.
“We will continue working with police to track down and shut down these illegal operations. The police across the UK have been unstinting in their efforts to tackle this criminality and we are grateful for their assistance.
“To those using illegal streaming services, the message is that you’re not just committing a crime; you are putting yourself at risk.
“These services often expose users to malware, scams, and data theft, with no recourse when things go wrong.
“The safest, smartest and only choice is to stick to legitimate providers for your entertainment.”
The operation follows a major series of raids across Europe recently that led to a huge network used by 22million people being shut down.
Five addresses in the UK were stormed, along with suspects in Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland.
The biggest part was carried out in Italy, where 270 officers searched 89 properties in 15 Italian regions.
It’s believed the network made more than £208million in revenue per month.
At least 29 servers were seized along with around 270 pieces of IPTV equipment allegedly used to facilitate the illegal service, leading to one hundred domains being taken offline as a result.
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.”
