A 68-year-old has been sentenced in the U.K. to more than six years in prison for operating an illegal IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) service that generated £980,812 ($1.3 million) over three years.
An investigation by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) at the City of London Police found that Milan Ibrahim ran a "sophisticated operation" that provided illegal IPTV services to users in the UK and abroad.
According to PIPCU, Ibrahim sold illegal broadcasts from major rights holders such as the BBC, ITV, Sky, the Premier League and the Motion Picture Association.
The police seized and shut down all servers they found during the operation, disrupting the illegal streams that users of the IPTV service received. “The investigation revealed that the business operated on 80 servers from premises in Chorley and generated £980,812 over a three-year period,” announced the City of London Police.
“During enforcement activity, all 80 servers were seized and shut down, significantly disrupting the operation’s ability to provide illegal streaming services.”
The seizure of the servers may lead to the identification of users of the service, who could pay fines or face other ramifications for funding and participating in copyright infringement activities.
The police say Ibrahim will also face Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings aimed at recovering the money generated by the service.
Stefan Sergot, Director of Legal Enforcement at the Premier League, called the law enforcement operation “significant,” characterizing the seized IPTV service as “one of the UK’s most prominent and long-standing suppliers of pirate services.”
UK government records show that Ibrahim was a director of CTU Systems, a now-dissolved company that marketed IPTV software, but authorities have not identified CTU Systems as being connected to the illegal service prosecuted in this case.
BleepingComputer has contacted the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), which participated in the action, and the PIPCU for more information about the illegal IPTV service, and we will update this post with their response once received.
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