An 'historic judgement' has been passed that looks ominous for people who watch content via illegal IPTV platforms, with a person who subscribed to one such service given a five month sentence.
Watching premium content via illegal means is as widespread as it has ever been, with millions of people watching content from subscription platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, and Sky Sports without paying for them.
And if they do pay, it is to discounted subscription services with pirated content before offering it out for vastly different costs to the full price you would pay to the services holding the copyright to said content.
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But the authorities are not sitting back and letting people get away with this. In fact, the approach is aggressive, if anything, with police this week visiting the homes of UK residents using 'dodgy fire sticks' to watch content illegally.
And while a lot of attention has naturally been on people who are behind hosting the content illegally and putting together illicit IPTV operations, the magnifying glass is closing in on those who use the services.
So much so that one man has reportedly been sentenced to five whole months for subscribing to such an IPTV service.
What's happened?
The incident in question here has occurred over in Greece, where authorities are really turning the screw on pirating.
With the prosecution of this man widely reportedly across the country, it has seen it described as a 'landmark and historic' decision, reports TorrentFreak.
According to local press, the prosecution came after the largest 'European raid' across 10 countries; Italy, Germany, France, the UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia).
The move was in fact part of the take down of a £2.5 billion IPTV operation used by more than 22 million households in the UK alone.
As a result of this, one subscriber to the platform in Greece was hauled before the courts in what has been described as a 'significant shift' when it comes to those who pay for the illegal content.
The case explained
Local press reports that the man contested the charge put his way, pleading not guilty.
His defence? He didn't know it was illegal to subscribe to the IPTV service and didn't understand where his subscription fees had been going.
"The judges concluded that the consequences of piracy cannot be considered ‘minor,’ given the enormous damage it causes on multiple levels,” a report from Skair.gr reads.
"According to the evidence presented at the trial, pay-TV piracy causes serious economic and social consequences, such as revenue losses for the Greek State from the non-collection of VAT and tax revenues and the parallel circulation of ‘black money’.
“It causes damage to Greek society from the loss of jobs and the non-payment of remuneration to creators. And it increases crime as pirate organisations have a clear criminal organisation structure with a multitude of parallel criminal crimes.
"And finally, piracy causes financial disaster for providers from revenue losses and degradation of the quality of services."
Has he been sent to jail?
According to a TorrentFreak source who is an expert on the Greek legal system, crimes with a sentence of five months would usually be suspended. This is where you don't actually go to prison unless you reoffend in a particular time frame.
Other key details are missing in the Greek reports, such as the defendants name and age, as well as background information about the case.
At the same time, other reports from local sources say Greece will soon be introducing €600 fines if you are caught watching illegal IPTV services.
Whatever the truth, the crackdown is very real, whether new rules or propaganda.
Topics: Crime, Film, Sport, TV, Technology, World News, IPTV
Tom Earnshaw