Selling Piracy Enabled Kodi Boxes Lands UK Man in Jail for Five Years
- A man from the UK who sold over 8,000 set-top boxes with piracy enabled has been handed a five-year jail sentence.
- The man started selling set box boxes in 2013 and generated over £764,000 from sales in two years.
- The decision by the court was met with a positive response from Kevin Plumb, who is the Premier League Director of Legal Services.
A United Kingdom court sentenced pirate IPTV box seller John Haggerty to five years of prison over piracy charges. Haggerty and his wife Mary Josephine Gilfillan started an online business to sell piracy-enabled set-top boxes in 2013 on online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon. The set-top boxes included Kodi with piracy-enabling add-on programs. Haggerty will have to start serving his prison sentence immediately over the piracy charges as well as for fraud due to ownership of fake passports, while his wife has been handed a two-year suspended sentence over piracy charges.
Image Courtesy of Newcastle Chronicle
Reports from the investigation state that over £764,000 was generated in revenue by the couple under the brand Evolution Trading, which started off as a wholesale company that sold spices, tea, and cocoa. Piracy is being handled very strictly in the UK, and the case against the couple is just one of many recent lawsuits in the UK that have been completed with harsh punishments being handed down to piracy-enabled KODI box sellers.
The couple priced the boxes at £75 and £100 for personal use and £400 for pub-owners. The couple’s piracy activities led to losses of £4m per year for legitimate broadcasters like Sky TV and BT Sport.
The couple actively promoted piracy online with marketing campaigns for their products with statements like “Stop paying for sky-high satellite or cable bills. Never buy or rent another DVD again! With Stream Box, you can view any movie from the very latest blockbuster to your all-time favorites”, “Watch any box set or TV Series ever made or ever will be made! Watch tons of sports and hundreds of other TV channels from all over the world ALL FOR FREE.” and “We consider Stream Box the future of TV viewing, with Stream box connected to your broadband Internet and your HD TV you can stream any film or TV show ever shown – all totally free.”.
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