Police crackdown on Watching TV
Discussion
Police will visit 1,000 homes this week as part of a massive crackdown on illegal television streaming.
They have identified customers from a huge database in a major ongoing criminal investigation and will knock on the doors of people to warn they could also face prosecution. This latest clampdown against 1,000 individuals comes after raids by West Mercia Police against a UK-based illegal streaming service offering entertainment and sports via modified boxes, so-called “ fire sticks” and subscriptions.
The new purge is against people who try to watch Premier League games, football from all over Europe and other sports and movies on the cheap.
Police have joined forces with anti-piracy investigators from FACT in “Operation Raider” and the knock on the door is likely to come as a huge shock. They will potentially be served with notices, be ordered to stop immediately and be warned of serious consequences if they carry on watching in one of the biggest clampdowns ever on illegal streaming.
Detective Inspector Matt McNellis, of West Mercia’s Cyber Crime Specialist Operation, said: “We are able to deploy cutting-edge digital tactics to identify and detect people who break the law before carrying out enforcement activity in concert with our partners.
“Often, illegal streaming is used to fund Serious Organised Crime and West Mercia Cybercrime Unit is committed to interdicting this source of criminal revenue and reducing the harm organised crime groups can do to our communities.”
Detective Chief Inspector Gary Robinson, of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said: “Accessing films, TV series and live sports events from unauthorised sources is illegal, can expose consumers to risks such as data theft and malware, and can help fund organised criminal groups.”
FACT Chief Executive, Kieron Sharp, added: “We would like to thank the Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN), the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), West Mercia Police, and other police forces across the country, for their support to help ensure that the public are made aware of the dangers of using illegal streaming services and, more importantly, that they understand that there is the risk of criminal prosecution.”
They have identified customers from a huge database in a major ongoing criminal investigation and will knock on the doors of people to warn they could also face prosecution. This latest clampdown against 1,000 individuals comes after raids by West Mercia Police against a UK-based illegal streaming service offering entertainment and sports via modified boxes, so-called “ fire sticks” and subscriptions.
The new purge is against people who try to watch Premier League games, football from all over Europe and other sports and movies on the cheap.
Police have joined forces with anti-piracy investigators from FACT in “Operation Raider” and the knock on the door is likely to come as a huge shock. They will potentially be served with notices, be ordered to stop immediately and be warned of serious consequences if they carry on watching in one of the biggest clampdowns ever on illegal streaming.
Detective Inspector Matt McNellis, of West Mercia’s Cyber Crime Specialist Operation, said: “We are able to deploy cutting-edge digital tactics to identify and detect people who break the law before carrying out enforcement activity in concert with our partners.
“Often, illegal streaming is used to fund Serious Organised Crime and West Mercia Cybercrime Unit is committed to interdicting this source of criminal revenue and reducing the harm organised crime groups can do to our communities.”
Detective Chief Inspector Gary Robinson, of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said: “Accessing films, TV series and live sports events from unauthorised sources is illegal, can expose consumers to risks such as data theft and malware, and can help fund organised criminal groups.”
FACT Chief Executive, Kieron Sharp, added: “We would like to thank the Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN), the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), West Mercia Police, and other police forces across the country, for their support to help ensure that the public are made aware of the dangers of using illegal streaming services and, more importantly, that they understand that there is the risk of criminal prosecution.”
Downward said:
Police will visit 1,000 homes this week as part of a massive crackdown on illegal television streaming.
They have identified customers from a huge database in a major ongoing criminal investigation and will knock on the doors of people to warn they could also face prosecution. This latest clampdown against 1,000 individuals comes after raids by West Mercia Police against a UK-based illegal streaming service offering entertainment and sports via modified boxes, so-called “ fire sticks” and subscriptions.
The new purge is against people who try to watch Premier League games, football from all over Europe and other sports and movies on the cheap.
Police have joined forces with anti-piracy investigators from FACT in “Operation Raider” and the knock on the door is likely to come as a huge shock. They will potentially be served with notices, be ordered to stop immediately and be warned of serious consequences if they carry on watching in one of the biggest clampdowns ever on illegal streaming.
Detective Inspector Matt McNellis, of West Mercia’s Cyber Crime Specialist Operation, said: “We are able to deploy cutting-edge digital tactics to identify and detect people who break the law before carrying out enforcement activity in concert with our partners.
“Often, illegal streaming is used to fund Serious Organised Crime and West Mercia Cybercrime Unit is committed to interdicting this source of criminal revenue and reducing the harm organised crime groups can do to our communities.”
Detective Chief Inspector Gary Robinson, of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said: “Accessing films, TV series and live sports events from unauthorised sources is illegal, can expose consumers to risks such as data theft and malware, and can help fund organised criminal groups.”
FACT Chief Executive, Kieron Sharp, added: “We would like to thank the Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN), the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), West Mercia Police, and other police forces across the country, for their support to help ensure that the public are made aware of the dangers of using illegal streaming services and, more importantly, that they understand that there is the risk of criminal prosecution.”
I wonder what these cutting-edge digital tactics are that can differentiate between me watching iPlayer and something else whilst a VPN is in use on a firestick?They have identified customers from a huge database in a major ongoing criminal investigation and will knock on the doors of people to warn they could also face prosecution. This latest clampdown against 1,000 individuals comes after raids by West Mercia Police against a UK-based illegal streaming service offering entertainment and sports via modified boxes, so-called “ fire sticks” and subscriptions.
The new purge is against people who try to watch Premier League games, football from all over Europe and other sports and movies on the cheap.
Police have joined forces with anti-piracy investigators from FACT in “Operation Raider” and the knock on the door is likely to come as a huge shock. They will potentially be served with notices, be ordered to stop immediately and be warned of serious consequences if they carry on watching in one of the biggest clampdowns ever on illegal streaming.
Detective Inspector Matt McNellis, of West Mercia’s Cyber Crime Specialist Operation, said: “We are able to deploy cutting-edge digital tactics to identify and detect people who break the law before carrying out enforcement activity in concert with our partners.
“Often, illegal streaming is used to fund Serious Organised Crime and West Mercia Cybercrime Unit is committed to interdicting this source of criminal revenue and reducing the harm organised crime groups can do to our communities.”
Detective Chief Inspector Gary Robinson, of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, said: “Accessing films, TV series and live sports events from unauthorised sources is illegal, can expose consumers to risks such as data theft and malware, and can help fund organised criminal groups.”
FACT Chief Executive, Kieron Sharp, added: “We would like to thank the Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN), the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), West Mercia Police, and other police forces across the country, for their support to help ensure that the public are made aware of the dangers of using illegal streaming services and, more importantly, that they understand that there is the risk of criminal prosecution.”
pavarotti1980 said:
I wonder what these cutting-edge digital tactics are that can differentiate between me watching iPlayer and something else whilst a VPN is in use on a firestick?
I doubt it's the VPN users the police will be targeting. There must be plenty of people not savvy enough to use a VPN and just connect their illegal boxes without one.s1962a said:
I doubt it's the VPN users the police will be targeting. There must be plenty of people not savvy enough to use a VPN and just connect their illegal boxes without one.
Of course there will be those. This all just seems like a bit of scaremongering as has happened in the past with Kodi boxes etc. They want the distributors in realitypavarotti1980 said:
s1962a said:
I doubt it's the VPN users the police will be targeting. There must be plenty of people not savvy enough to use a VPN and just connect their illegal boxes without one.
Of course there will be those. This all just seems like a bit of scaremongering as has happened in the past with Kodi boxes etc. They want the distributors in reality"They will potentially be served with notices, be ordered to stop immediately and be warned of serious consequences if they carry on watching."
Always a hot topic.
I’ve had Sky for 20 years plus now subscribing to Sports.
Also added Prime mainly for shopping but it shows Football which is good.
Now my wife watches a load of American drama on Sky, CSi, NCIS etc etc, I watched the Walking Dead.
So now all these series have gone from sky over to Disney and Paramount so another couple of paid subscriptions required.
So we subscribe now to
Sky
Prime
Disney
Paramount
Netflix
Also IPTV (I go to Football when I can on Weekends) but I’ll watch my team if it’s not on Sky Sports.
Seriously thinking about ditching paid for sky and just going freeview though which would save £30 a month.
I’ve had Sky for 20 years plus now subscribing to Sports.
Also added Prime mainly for shopping but it shows Football which is good.
Now my wife watches a load of American drama on Sky, CSi, NCIS etc etc, I watched the Walking Dead.
So now all these series have gone from sky over to Disney and Paramount so another couple of paid subscriptions required.
So we subscribe now to
Sky
Prime
Disney
Paramount
Netflix
Also IPTV (I go to Football when I can on Weekends) but I’ll watch my team if it’s not on Sky Sports.
Seriously thinking about ditching paid for sky and just going freeview though which would save £30 a month.
I'm sure things have improved somewhat in the world of media piracy, but honestly, I find it massively easier to just pay for stuff.
Years ago when I was a student I would use Napster, BitTorrent, and so on for my MP3's and films, and then I briefly tried those dodgy cards you could get for your sky box, then years ago friends insisted I tried the early versions of those Kodi boxes.
Without fail, all of these things have been absolute rubbish. If anything is temperamental, or I have to fiddle with it, or mess around with it in some way to get it to work, it's going in the bin. I subscribe to Netflix, Prime, Apple Music etc, and I could never go back to anything less than a flawless or instantaneous media service. Some friends still have those '£80 a year' FireSticks which allow them to watch all the Sky channels and all the sports, but they still have issues where it just randomly stops working every so often for no apparent reason.
That aside, I think this action by the police is just completely ridiculous and a massive waste of their precious time. I would much rather they put the effort into say, catching the people who burgled my parents house, or investigating the criminals who have defrauded ordinary citizens, rather than acting as debt collectors for billion dollar corporations.
I don't believe this to be in the public interest at all.
Years ago when I was a student I would use Napster, BitTorrent, and so on for my MP3's and films, and then I briefly tried those dodgy cards you could get for your sky box, then years ago friends insisted I tried the early versions of those Kodi boxes.
Without fail, all of these things have been absolute rubbish. If anything is temperamental, or I have to fiddle with it, or mess around with it in some way to get it to work, it's going in the bin. I subscribe to Netflix, Prime, Apple Music etc, and I could never go back to anything less than a flawless or instantaneous media service. Some friends still have those '£80 a year' FireSticks which allow them to watch all the Sky channels and all the sports, but they still have issues where it just randomly stops working every so often for no apparent reason.
That aside, I think this action by the police is just completely ridiculous and a massive waste of their precious time. I would much rather they put the effort into say, catching the people who burgled my parents house, or investigating the criminals who have defrauded ordinary citizens, rather than acting as debt collectors for billion dollar corporations.
I don't believe this to be in the public interest at all.
bigpriest said:
Scaremongering with the least scary outcome!
"They will potentially be served with notices, be ordered to stop immediately and be warned of serious consequences if they carry on watching."
Absolutely warning people who will then do more to conceal the fact they are doing it. If they are so concerned speak to Amazon and stop them selling Firesticks "They will potentially be served with notices, be ordered to stop immediately and be warned of serious consequences if they carry on watching."
My opinion is they will not be visiting any homes. Bit like the TV licensing detector vans
catso said:
Is this really the best use of Police resources?
With all the bad stuff going down, is this it? Enforcement of private companies revenue, I know petty rules have always been up there but is this really a priority/in the public interest and who's paying for it?
Yeah I guess though big companies decide who the police go after.With all the bad stuff going down, is this it? Enforcement of private companies revenue, I know petty rules have always been up there but is this really a priority/in the public interest and who's paying for it?
Don’t worry about individuals getting scammed or defrauded.
catso said:
Is this really the best use of Police resources?
With all the bad stuff going down, is this it? Enforcement of private companies revenue, I know petty rules have always been up there but is this really a priority/in the public interest and who's paying for it?
Exactly my thoughts, seems as ever to go for the soft targets.With all the bad stuff going down, is this it? Enforcement of private companies revenue, I know petty rules have always been up there but is this really a priority/in the public interest and who's paying for it?
We'll just ignore all of the knife crime for example.
catso said:
Is this really the best use of Police resources?
With all the bad stuff going down, is this it? Enforcement of private companies revenue, I know petty rules have always been up there but is this really a priority/in the public interest and who's paying for it?
Absolutely, you only have to watch some of the auditor videos on YouTube to know this is true.With all the bad stuff going down, is this it? Enforcement of private companies revenue, I know petty rules have always been up there but is this really a priority/in the public interest and who's paying for it?
1)Man walking around on a public footpath filming a business on his phone which is completely legal? 2 minutes later three police cars will arrive with six officers surrounding him asking him what he is doing and implying they are going to arrest him on the anti terrorism act (which is complete nonsense)
2)House gets burgled? you will be lucky if the police even bother to turn up.
pavarotti1980 said:
bigpriest said:
Scaremongering with the least scary outcome!
"They will potentially be served with notices, be ordered to stop immediately and be warned of serious consequences if they carry on watching."
Absolutely warning people who will then do more to conceal the fact they are doing it. If they are so concerned speak to Amazon and stop them selling Firesticks "They will potentially be served with notices, be ordered to stop immediately and be warned of serious consequences if they carry on watching."
Downward said:
Always a hot topic.
I’ve had Sky for 20 years plus now subscribing to Sports.
Also added Prime mainly for shopping but it shows Football which is good.
Now my wife watches a load of American drama on Sky, CSi, NCIS etc etc, I watched the Walking Dead.
So now all these series have gone from sky over to Disney and Paramount so another couple of paid subscriptions required.
So we subscribe now to
Sky
Prime
Disney
Paramount
Netflix
Also IPTV (I go to Football when I can on Weekends) but I’ll watch my team if it’s not on Sky Sports.
Seriously thinking about ditching paid for sky and just going freeview though which would save £30 a month.
I haven't watched broadcast TV for about 7 years, started with a firestick I installed Kodi on but it became an increasing hassle to keep it working and I started to get the fear about all the random apps I had to download to keep it working.I’ve had Sky for 20 years plus now subscribing to Sports.
Also added Prime mainly for shopping but it shows Football which is good.
Now my wife watches a load of American drama on Sky, CSi, NCIS etc etc, I watched the Walking Dead.
So now all these series have gone from sky over to Disney and Paramount so another couple of paid subscriptions required.
So we subscribe now to
Sky
Prime
Disney
Paramount
Netflix
Also IPTV (I go to Football when I can on Weekends) but I’ll watch my team if it’s not on Sky Sports.
Seriously thinking about ditching paid for sky and just going freeview though which would save £30 a month.
I now just pay for streaming apps. Obviously more expensive than free but the benefit of the apps for me is that if I'm not watching anything on a particular app, I can just cancel it. The only one I grudge paying for is Prime because the app is s
te and I generally don't use Amazon for anything. Need it for Motortrend though.Downward said:
Always a hot topic.
I’ve had Sky for 20 years plus now subscribing to Sports.
Also added Prime mainly for shopping but it shows Football which is good.
Now my wife watches a load of American drama on Sky, CSi, NCIS etc etc, I watched the Walking Dead.
So now all these series have gone from sky over to Disney and Paramount so another couple of paid subscriptions required.
So we subscribe now to
Sky
Prime
Disney
Paramount
Netflix
Also IPTV (I go to Football when I can on Weekends) but I’ll watch my team if it’s not on Sky Sports.
Seriously thinking about ditching paid for sky and just going freeview though which would save £30 a month.
I've just cancelled Sky after 20 years. We realised last year that we watched each of Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney and more recently Apple TV more than we watched Sky. Cancelling Sky and replacing with Now TV including entertainment will cut the TV subs bill roughly in half, so it was a no brainer decision.I’ve had Sky for 20 years plus now subscribing to Sports.
Also added Prime mainly for shopping but it shows Football which is good.
Now my wife watches a load of American drama on Sky, CSi, NCIS etc etc, I watched the Walking Dead.
So now all these series have gone from sky over to Disney and Paramount so another couple of paid subscriptions required.
So we subscribe now to
Sky
Prime
Disney
Paramount
Netflix
Also IPTV (I go to Football when I can on Weekends) but I’ll watch my team if it’s not on Sky Sports.
Seriously thinking about ditching paid for sky and just going freeview though which would save £30 a month.
Joey Deacon said:
catso said:
Is this really the best use of Police resources?
With all the bad stuff going down, is this it? Enforcement of private companies revenue, I know petty rules have always been up there but is this really a priority/in the public interest and who's paying for it?
Absolutely, you only have to watch some of the auditor videos on YouTube to know this is true.With all the bad stuff going down, is this it? Enforcement of private companies revenue, I know petty rules have always been up there but is this really a priority/in the public interest and who's paying for it?
1)Man walking around on a public footpath filming a business on his phone which is completely legal? 2 minutes later three police cars will arrive with six officers surrounding him asking him what he is doing and implying they are going to arrest him on the anti terrorism act (which is complete nonsense)
2)House gets burgled? you will be lucky if the police even bother to turn up.
This policy is case in point. Apparently there is NO money left for public services at all, at least that's the justification for not wanting to pay nurses, doctors, train workers, bin men and other key workers a reasonable wage, but yet the police do have the resources to painstakingly trawl through the communications data of people for the crime of watching multi millionaires perform on a screen without paying dues to muti billionaire broadcast company owners first.
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