Welsh Court Fines IPTV Box Seller Following Complaint from Sky

• Sky launched an investigation with Trading Standards against an IPTV seller selling piracy enabled boxes.
• The 30-year old individual has caused a loss of £48,000 to Sky according to the broadcaster’s reports.
• The individual was selling the devices on Facebook that offered Sky content for free.

Piracy-enabled set-top boxes are often sold by individuals who are lured into the idea of being able to make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. However, it also puts them in legal trouble against the biggest broadcasters in the world, and that’s what happened to Ryan Jackson from Rhayader, Wales. The individual has been sued by Sky which could lead to a fine of £48,000 in court.

Jackson admitted to four offenses after a complaint was filed by Sky TV following an investigation by the broadcaster and Local Standards under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Three of the offenses involve “selling devices configured to circumvent technological measures and one for breach of copyright for financial gain.”

Jackson was selling pre-configured Amazon devices on Facebook that offered access to Sky content illegally. He was also selling subscriptions to IPTV services without licensing. The “loaded” devices were being sold for £105 on the social media platform. The investigation by Sky states that Jackson made £18,183 from January 2016 to August 2018 through sales of these devices. However, the final report by the broadcaster accounts for the potential profit Sky would have made if the services were sold legitimately which sets that figure at £48,384.

The Powys County Council revealed that Jackson’s actual profit varied between £10 and £30 for each sale and his profit from the sale of the boxes and IPTV subscriptions does not exceed £2,500. In fact, Jackson may have made as little as £840 but could have to end up paying over fifty times his profit to Sky. The magistrate who was in charge of the court proceedings reprimanded Jackson for his actions. Jackson has been fined £1,340 and ordered to pay £4,070 in costs along with a surcharge of £34.

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