Police shut down illegal IPTV operation

ITRealms:

The Spanish National Police have raided a Málaga store suspected of hosting an illegal Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) streaming business, reports ITRealms.

According to BroadbandTVNews, this Internet service was being run by two UK nationals with an unauthorised subscription services relaying 100 international channels, some of them featuring Premier League matches. It was selling subscriptions to many of the foreign nationals who lived in the area.

The action was taken in-conjunction with the Premier League and security protection business Irdeto.

At the time of the raid, five of the company’s 10 employees were present, including the system administrator who was in was in charge of the operation of the servers used to provide illegal access to the channels, an IT technician in charge of preparing the illicit devices and three sales managers.

Premier League Director of Legal Services, Kevin Plumb, said: “The raids conducted by the Spanish authorities, supported in this case by Irdeto’s expertise, are a positive example of law enforcement taking seriously piracy and IP infringement. This approach is essential for organisations like the Premier League – and other creative industries – as our model is predicated on the ability to market and sell rights and protect intellectual property. It is because of this that clubs can invest in star players and managers, and world class stadiums – the very things fans enjoy about our competition.”

During the raid it emerged that a security system was able to alert the owners of the business in the UK, who attempted to destroy evidence linking them with the operation.

“We are grateful to the Spanish Police for their support and decisive action against IPTV piracy,” said Mark Mulready, Senior Director, Cyber Services & Investigations at Irdeto. “We will continue to work closely with our customers, partners and law enforcement agencies to detect, analyze, investigate and counter all types of piracy affecting on-demand and live real-time content. This is a growing problem affecting content owners, broadcasters and operators across the world. Efforts like this are more critical than ever and set an example that piracy will not be tolerated.”

An Irdeto investigator told the Police that he went to the store in the shopping center where the employees showed him the device and services available. The representative supplied as evidence the reception device and a premium subscription purchased for €450 from the store.

Source: BroadbandTVNews

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