IPTV pirate owners sentenced to 36 months in prison and $18 million in damages - A case that shakes up the illegal streaming industry!

Two men sentenced to 36 months in prison for operating a pirate IPTV service

Two men who operated a pirate IPTV service have been sentenced to 36 months' imprisonment by a specialized intellectual property court in Sweden. Anonymous information led to an investigation, police surveillance including phone tapping, and subsequent searches which resulted in the seizure of 47 gold bars and sufficient evidence for two convictions. The men were also ordered to pay over $18 million in damages to the broadcasters.

Anonymous information at the origin of the survey

It's unclear why anyone would give anonymous information to anti-piracy group Nordic Content Protection (NCP) in 2019. But for NCP members, including pay-TV company C More (formerly Canal+), Warner Bros. Discovery and streaming service Viaplay, it signaled the start of an investigation and lawsuit that would not end for another four years.

The police have also received information

The person who made the tip reported an illegal IPTV network in the town of Gävle. Then, in 2020, the NCP reportedly received another tip, this time from the Gävle police, who in turn had received similar information about a similar operation.

It's unclear whether the ASC took any action, but a year after being tipped off by the police, the anti-piracy group received another tip about the same service. According to GD.se (paywall), the person who gave this information had purchased an IPTV device from the service for around $260, but if the ASC was interested, he was willing to sell it to them.

Investigation, surveillance, wiretapping

An investigation into the service, which has still not been publicly named, included both online and offline work. GD notes that a period of police-led surveillance included phone tapping, before several searches were conducted in October 2021.

At the homes of the two suspects, one in Gävle and the other in Sandviken, police found computers that linked to the IPTV device purchased by the anonymous tipster. The police were also able to prove that the Sandviken man had rented servers, while the Gävle man was in charge of the software on which the service ran.

IPTV service from September 2017 to October 2021

Evidence showed that the police raids in October 2021 put an end to an IPTV service that had been running for almost four years since September 2017. The provider would have served more than 12,000 customers and generated considerable revenue.

During a search of the Sandviken man's home, police discovered 47 gold bars. A collection of whisky worth an estimated SEK 1,000,000 ($91,600) was discovered at the other suspect's home in Gävle. In all, police discovered SEK 270,000 ($24,700) in cash, as well as SEK 450,000 ($41,200) in Bitcoin.

Conviction by the Swedish Patent and Market Court

The men were convicted last week at the Patent and Market Court, a court specializing in intellectual property cases at the Stockholm District Court. The court found that, with so many customers, the men had operated the service as a business, which was probably their main source of income.

Along with a third defendant, who was later found not guilty, the alleged operators of the service denied committing any crimes. According to reports, the duo refused to talk during the investigation or trial; this did not bear fruit.

The two men were found guilty of criminal copyright infringement and sentenced to 36 months in prison. Then came the awarding of damages.

The former partners were held jointly and severally liable for damages totaling SEK 196,247,000 ($18 million), to be paid to C More, Warner Bros. Discovery and Viaplay, the latter being the most affected.

To put things into perspective, the three men behind The Pirate Bay were ordered to pay a total of $6.5 million after an unsuccessful appeal of their 2009 convictions. The Pirate Bay trio were sentenced to a combined prison term of 22 months, a far cry from the 72 months handed down to the two IPTV operators last week.