Sky TV has issued a warning to anyone illegally streaming their content, saying they could face ‘significant consequences’.
A streaming operation which provided illegal access to Sky Sports and Sky Cinema has recently been closed down by police and its mastermind jailed, meaning users can no longer get free or heavily discounted access to the content.
Gary McNally was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison last month after admitting two charges under the Fraud Act 2006.
He set up a service called Each Online, which operated between 2017 and 2020, and at its peak it illegally streamed a World Championship boxing match from Sky to 2,000 users.
Each Online was an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service, which refers to any service using the internet to deliver live television.
IPTV services themselves aren’t illegal, with Sky Stream and Sky Glass two examples of legitimate IPTVs which use the internet rather than a satellite dish.
But the term is often used by fraudsters advertising their services, which could be accessed online, via social media, or using hardware like the Amazon Fire TV Stick or a Roku dongle.
Sky first became aware of McNally in June 2020 after an investigation found he was using legitimate NOW accounts to gain illegal access to Sky content.
They referred the case to the police, who searched two homes in Birmingham in September 2021.
During the searches they found laptops, hard drives and NOW TV devices believed to have been used by McNally to operate pirate IPTV services.
McNally, 55 and from Acocks Green, was sentenced at Birmingham crown court last month.
Speaking after the sentencing, Sky’s head of anti-piracy, Matt Hibbert, told GB News: ‘Today’s sentencing highlights the significant consequences that can arise for those that get involved in illegally streaming content.
‘We are grateful to the West Midlands Police for acting so robustly to take down a highly sophisticated illegal streaming operation.
‘We will continue to work with law enforcement to protect our content and help keep consumers safe from criminal piracy networks.’
The Intellectual Property Office estimate that online copyright infringement costs the UK economy about £9billion and causes more than 80,000 job losses every year.
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