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

[beorhthelm]

I‘m now wondering how this will play out, as I see it there’s 3 outcomes

1) Police don’t actually go through with this
2) Police go through with it but don’t catch many people.
3) Police go through with it and catch a significant number of people.

1) or 2) and the police look stupid. 3) is the only option which gives the police any credibility but as you say, a huge PR disaster. Why on earth have they set themselves up for this?

it'll be 2. not like they have a choice really, if there is a law there is some expectation of enforcement. police cant say "this law is unpopular, we'll ignore it", probably a small unit somewhere and every so often they need to put on a show. like so much other lower level crime.

 

[zeemeeuw]

This was actually partially related to my job for the past 10 years up until beginning of this year. A few things:

- technically it’s very difficult for an ISP to consistently get this information, but can be done. Same techniques used to prove terrorism or child porn offences.

- highly unlikely an individual watching could be prosecuted- more likely those providing access, selling access or profiting from it (pubs, working men’s clubs etc)

- it is possible the PL or someone on their behalf has started a fishing campaign, maybe they’ve busted a site or it’s leaked information of whose been watching - and that’s been threatened against some ISPs with a possible court order or similar.

- ISPs daily get provided proof of their users doing bad things by ‘lawyers’ representing various rights holders, but incredibly rare it goes much further as an ISP usually takes some form of proactive action.

- vpns help users on a device, but no protection for those using firesticks

- VPNs help in some ways, but all you’re doing is filtering your internet traffic through sone spurious source who then gets visibility into your internet traffic , that is unencrypted - use with caution.

I don't think the police are that bothered about chasing people watching dodgy football streams over a VPN.

The original article says it's an ongoing investigation with FACT (primary focus on Film and Television rights).

I suspect the Police have busted one of these IPTV companies that provide a subscription service. This they consider organised crime and is of interest to them.

So, unless their 'customers' have been using Bitcoin for payments then there is a trail and the Police now have a list of subscribers. That's who will be getting the warnings.

The offenders should probably be more worried about the media company's lawyers getting these lists and start chasing people for the 'debt' of unpaid for content they have been watching.

 

[Since1982]

- vpns help users on a device, but no protection for those using firesticks

Why is that? (Asking for a friend)

 

[Springal]

Why is that? (Asking for a friend)

Because you can’t run a VPN from a fire stick. Only other way would be if you could run a VPN from your router directly (unlikely)

 

[HalfaSeatOn]

it'll be 2. not like they have a choice really, if there is a law there is some expectation of enforcement. police cant say "this law is unpopular, we'll ignore it", probably a small unit somewhere and every so often they need to put on a show. like so much other lower level crime.

Police prioritise resources to respond to demand of potential illegal activity. Not addressing things below the line is effectively ignoring it. The police PR disaster element here is that they would be responding to big business demand not community based demand. Your ‘small unit‘ and putting on a show sounds the way they’ll go.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

it'll be 2. not like they have a choice really, if there is a law there is some expectation of enforcement. police cant say "this law is unpopular, we'll ignore it", probably a small unit somewhere and every so often they need to put on a show. like so much other lower level crime.

2) will make the police look incompetent and stupid.

Whoever decided this is a sensible idea needs firing.

 

[Shopes]

Because you can’t run a VPN from a fire stick. Only other way would be if you could run a VPN from your router directly (unlikely)

I've got VPN software on my Firestick. Is it not doing anything?

 

[Seasider78]

 

[mikeyjh]

Because you can’t run a VPN from a fire stick. Only other way would be if you could run a VPN from your router directly (unlikely)

Yeah, you can run VPNs on a fire stick, it's just an android device at the end of the day.

FWIW, I'm not sure there's much truth in this story, even if it could be proved that one had used IPTV, I'm not sure how easy it would be to prove that one watched Bournemouth v Brentford on a particular Tuesday night....

 

[banjo]

Quick they’re coming.

 

[Bozza]

Whether you use a VPN or not, I'm not sure it's relevant at all. It seems they're not looking to identify people who may be streaming via technical analysis of internet traffic, but have accessed data of those who have paid for IPTV services, per the article...

"They have identified customers from a huge database in a major ongoing criminal investigation"​

​

There'll be a simple money trail - Paypal or similar - from IPTV subscribers to the dodgy geezers who sell access.

However the "risk" to any such subscriber is still likely very small - the main targets are the dodgy geezers who run the networks.

 

[Springal]

Yeah, you can run VPNs on a fire stick, it's just an android device at the end of the day.

FWIW, I'm not sure there's much truth in this story, even if it could be proved that one had used IPTV, I'm not sure how easy it would be to prove that one watched Bournemouth v Brentford on a particular Tuesday night....

Fair enough, didn’t realise you could

 

[swindonseagull]

To be fair that’s not entirely true. Internet service providers can quite easily tell who has been watching them from a user perspective.

Not if you use a VPN

 

[Official Old Man]

"They have identified customers from a huge database in a major ongoing criminal investigation"​

​

There'll be a simple money trail - Paypal or similar - from IPTV subscribers to the dodgy geezers who sell access.

So the police will now be going through every bacs transaction between £60 & £70. My payment was for a used printer from a guy I met at the pub.
If someone paid by BACS then it would be easy to locate the bank account and person collecting the money, presuming the correct paperwork could be forthcoming from a judge. But this person is a middle man so you'd need to go above him/her. It is a huge money spinning business, just think how many people have IPTV in this country alone. And, as is mentioned all the time, if this is organised crime gangs, then the police will want to track them down. But it is those at the top they want. Those at the bottom, the viewer, would be used only to track down Mr Big.

 

[swindonseagull]

This was actually partially related to my job for the past 10 years up until beginning of this year. A few things:

- technically it’s very difficult for an ISP to consistently get this information, but can be done. Same techniques used to prove terrorism or child porn offences.

- highly unlikely an individual watching could be prosecuted- more likely those providing access, selling access or profiting from it (pubs, working men’s clubs etc)

- it is possible the PL or someone on their behalf has started a fishing campaign, maybe they’ve busted a site or it’s leaked information of whose been watching - and that’s been threatened against some ISPs with a possible court order or similar.

- ISPs daily get provided proof of their users doing bad things by ‘lawyers’ representing various rights holders, but incredibly rare it goes much further as an ISP usually takes some form of proactive action.

- vpns help users on a device, but no protection for those using firesticks

- VPNs help in some ways, but all you’re doing is filtering your internet traffic through sone spurious source who then gets visibility into your internet traffic , that is unencrypted - use with caution.

My fire stick has a VPN but it’s very rarely used

 

[phoenix]

Once or twice a year the premier League plant these fake scare stories in the press to scare a few .....

Yes true it won't bother hardened criminals like us will it

 

[happypig]

Because you can’t run a VPN from a fire stick. Only other way would be if you could run a VPN from your router directly (unlikely)

I run a firestick with a VPN (Nord VPN) and my router can run a VPN as well but I don't at the moment because Ring doorbells don't work with a VPN.

 

[pure_white]

Lots of kids stream matches are they gonna jail them?

 

[zeemeeuw]

Yeah, you can run VPNs on a fire stick, it's just an android device at the end of the day.

FWIW, I'm not sure there's much truth in this story, even if it could be proved that one had used IPTV, I'm not sure how easy it would be to prove that one watched Bournemouth v Brentford on a particular Tuesday night....

The dodgy IPTV companies employ the same technology as Netflix etc... You're probably aware that Netflix know exactly what their subscribers have streamed and when (VPN or not). So the only question is have the police managed to access the relevant records of the illegal IPTV operation, I think in this case they may have been successful.

 

[Questions]

watch out for the cat detector van