Sky gets access to 'dodgy box' users after landmark court case gives them names and bank details

A court case in Ireland will result in Sky being provided with the names, addresses and bank details of 304 subscribers to 'dodgy box' services, and some of them will face legal action.

The Irish Independent reports that Sky will receive the list of names from Revolut as part of a court case against a distributor of the services which allow people to stream content outside the confines of the law.

According to them Sky intends 'to take legal actions against the resellers and some of the end users', which means the people who bought the devices and used them to stream content face potential punishment.

While Sky will be getting the details of over 300 people who were using these 'dodgy boxes' to access content without paying, the Irish Independent also reports that the broadcaster told the High Court they wouldn't be rushing to bring cases 'against all 304 subscribers'.

The outlet said they understand Sky's initial approach to the users would be a legal letter with a threat of follow-on action.

There are a lot of people who use some form of illegal streaming who might now face punishment (Getty Stock Photo)

Sky received people's details due to the prosecution of Wexford man David Dunbar, who has been ordered to pay the broadcaster €480,000 in damages as he operated an illegal streaming platform called 'IPTV is Easy'.

12 resellers and 304 users were found to have paid Dunbar through the finance app Revolut, and he charged subscription fees of between €80 and €100 per year.

The High Court ordered Revolut to turn over the details of all 304 users and 10 of the resellers to Sky in an encrypted format.

Crackdowns on these crimes have typically gone after sellers and distributors of the dodgy devices which allow people to stream without paying.

Individual users have not been targeted with punishments before in Ireland, prosecution and resulting fines have been focused on the organisers.

One of the reasons for this is because there are so many users of illegal streaming, but if the details of users are being turned over in court cases and some people face legal punishment that could begin to set a precedent.

Sky have said they're looking to go after some of the users, but aren't going to go after all 304 of them (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Countries like Ireland and the UK don't typically punish the users as their investigations focus on the people who sell the devices and make the platforms they use to show illegal content.

However, if that changes then it's a lot more people in the firing line for legal punishment over their use of illegal streaming.

Some countries do this already, Italy has a system for fining users of illegal streaming with the first penalty being €154 with further violations pushing the fines up to €5,000.

After Italian law was changed to crack down on users the Guardia di Finanza announced they had identified and fined 2,282 people, while Connexion France reports that 19 users were recently fined €300 and €400 for illegally streaming sports.

It appears as though more countries are trying to bring in punishments against people using illegal streaming platforms.