[Football] Police to 'visit 1,000 homes' in MASSIVE crackdown on illegal Premier League streaming

[Mustafa II]

Police to visit 1,000 homes in crackdown on illegal Premier League streaming

Customers have been identified as part of a major ongoing criminal investigation and police will knock on the doors of people to warn they could also face prosecution

www.mirror.co.uk

If you think football streaming is a victimless crime - you're wrong. It could be costing organisations such as Sky and Amazon lots of money, which they would otherwise be earning through subscriptions. Hold that thought next time you ILLEGALLY look for some dodgy stream which wouldn't otherwise be watchable in the UK, and people from other countries get to watch for pennies, or for free, and legally.

 

[Springal]

Can’t see how they sticks up in court. Guaranteed convictions for those providing the streaming services either directly or by selling fire sticks etc, but going after individuals - waste of time

 

[Monkey Man]

For a lot of people it's now part of the matchday routine if we're not at home or the match isn't on TV. Search for a vaguely decent stream and enjoy it for nothing, while at the same time maintaining the direct debit for season tickets, Sky and BT Sport.

I doubt very much that the police will be devoting their scant resources to this kind of stuff.

 

[WhingForPresident]

 

[Lenny Rider]

Police to visit 1,000 homes in crackdown on illegal Premier League streaming

Customers have been identified as part of a major ongoing criminal investigation and police will knock on the doors of people to warn they could also face prosecution

www.mirror.co.uk

If you think football streaming is a victimless crime - you're wrong. It could be costing organisations such as Sky and Amazon lots of money, which they would otherwise be earning through subscriptions. Hold that thought next time you ILLEGALLY look for some dodgy stream which wouldn't otherwise be watchable in the UK, and people from other countries get to watch for pennies, or for free, and legally.

Asking for a friend, but 'Fake Taxi' is all above board isn't it?

 

[nicko31]

They will go after the people flogging the boxes / sticks

 

[dadams2k11]

3 letters.

VPN.

 

[Littlemo]

I usually don’t stream games, have occasionally, but the way they talk about this really pisses me off.

If you want to watch games on tv, then you have not only had to pay for the cable/satellite services to your home, you have to pay in addition, to have tv services, then you pay again to get sports, and pay to more than one provider (Sky, BT, Amazon Prime etc).

Then they don’t even show all the games. We pay for stuff and don’t get it. They show highlights later on - so at what point are you actually stealing when you are streaming something you’ve paid for and will be viewing later on in a legitimate way anyway? (Depending on where the stream comes from I suppose).

Given what we all pay for, we ought to be asking why we should need to be streaming any game and why they aren’t showing it to us, when they are already there and filming it. I know they had the ridiculous rule about 3pm Sat matches and lower league games, but they do this with all games.

 

[B-right-on]

That's because there's not enough 'real crime' about. Nothing to do with the influence these broadcasters have with their billions. Honest.

Probably just my excuse but I might have possibly accidentally fell on a website that was showing a game away that I might have glanced at. I'm highly unlikely to be able to get to any away PL games due to time/ money. And for me it's a very very straight forward choice between Sky and a ST. Guess which won?

I'd rather watch all live home games and listen to away on radio than the odd home/away game BHA game shown. I'm not really interested in other teams games enough to swop my ST for Sky.

 

[hart's shirt]

With technological advances providing free armchair season tickets to millions, it's not a battle that they're likely to win anytime soon.

 

[Official Old Man]

If they knock on the door and you have been watching a game, what is the maximum fine/imprisonment? I have trouble getting police to answer my shoplifting calls so are they really going to do something about IPTV? Of course, it may be the ISP is giving out details, but again, under what legislation?

 

[swindonseagull]

Let the clubs stream all their games for a monthly subscription
Problem solved.

 

[MrSnuggles]

If the game isn't being shown live by BT or Sky how can they argue they are losing revenue, particularly as most of us subscribe anyway.

 

[beorhthelm]

sure its pretty low level stuff but copyright law is well defined. expect they'll be focusing on some involved in distribution.

 

[Mustafa II]

The one thing I think a lot of us need clearing up is...

Is streaming an unofficial sporting broadcast online illegal or not?

My understanding is that by doing so, you are not breaking the law. Similarly, sharing a link of an illegal broadcast is not breaking the law.

You are only breaking the law if you host/broadcast a stream, or provide the physical means for others to illegally stream - eg selling modded fire sticks.

Can anyone with a better legal understanding confirm this?

 

[BNthree]

The one thing I think a lot of us need clearing up is...

Is streaming an unofficial sporting broadcast online illegal or not?

My understanding is that by doing so, you are not breaking the law. Similarly, sharing a link of an illegal broadcast is not breaking the law.

You are only breaking the law if you host/broadcast a stream, or provide the physical means for others to illegally stream - eg selling modded fire sticks.

Can anyone with a better legal understanding confirm this?

That's what I always thought but the article you linked to says 2 chaps were jailed for watching streams in 2021. Which is mind boggling really.

 

[dazzer6666]

Let the clubs stream all their games for a monthly subscription
Problem solved.

PL will eventually take over……….and run their own streaming subscription service.

 

[beorhthelm]

If the game isn't being shown live by BT or Sky how can they argue they are losing revenue, particularly as most of us subscribe anyway.

if a book or CD is out of print, can you copy them? no. it's age old arguement that doesn't hold (sadly - a lot of material is unavailable).

 

[GingerBeerMan]

The one thing I think a lot of us need clearing up is...

Is streaming an unofficial sporting broadcast online illegal or not?

My understanding is that by doing so, you are not breaking the law. Similarly, sharing a link of an illegal broadcast is not breaking the law.

You are only breaking the law if you host/broadcast a stream, or provide the physical means for others to illegally stream - eg selling modded fire sticks.

Can anyone with a better legal understanding confirm this?

I think it's pretty clear cut that accessing copyrighted content without the permission of the owner if illegal. Not to say whether it's morally correct, but I'm sure legally you have no leg you stand on.

Most comments in this thread are spot on though, they'd be mad to enforce it on an individual level.

 

[Mustafa II]

That's what I always thought but the article you linked to says 2 chaps were jailed for watching streams in 2021. Which is mind boggling really.

No.

One of the chaps was jailed for hosting an online streaming website called IPTV, and the other was jailed for sharing his Netflix password with over a thousand people....

As far as I'm aware, there is nothing in UK law that makes receiving a football stream illegal.