Operators of the UK's largest illegal streaming service jailed for over 30 years

[midian182]

In brief: Five men behind the UK's largest pirate service have been sentenced to a total of more than 30 years following a five-year private prosecution by the Premier League, the country's top-level soccer league. The illegal streams they operated attracted over 50,000 subscribers and made millions of dollars.

Mark Gould, Steven Gordon, Peter Jolley, Christopher Felvus, William Brown, and Zak Smith generated more than $8.6 million between 2016 and 2021 through subscriptions – over 50,000 - to pirate streaming services that offered access to a slew of content, including Premier League matches.

Flawless IPTV, one of the services they operated that ran from 2016 until 2018, copied over 300 TV broadcasts from official and unofficial sources and restreamed them for just over $12 per month. For context, subscribing to the official UK channels that show Premier League matches costs between $75 and $100 per month.

Subscribers and resellers, who charged less than $8 per month for Flawless, generated around $5.7 million in two years, of which kingpin Gould took over $2.1 million.

The Premier League - watching it can be an expensive hobby

A pay dispute between the men led to Gordon and Jolley launching a service called Optimal in 2018, but it failed due to Gould and Brown infecting its servers with malware, writes the Daily Mail.

Flawless 2, aka Shared VPS, launched after Gould was initially arrested in 2018. It made $3.22 million between 2018 and 2021.

UK anti-piracy organization FACT, the Premier League, police forces, and trading standards investigated the men. In one case, there was evidence of payments made to a Shared VPS PayPal account linked to Gould.

Gould, who benefitted most from the crimes, was sentenced to 11 years for two counts of conspiracy to defraud and contempt of court. Gordon, whose share was $1.2 million, received five years and two months. Jolley ($956,000) also received five years and two months. Felvus ($203,450) received three years and 11 months, while Brown ($18,500) received four years and nine months. Zak Smith, who made less than $6,000, did not appear in court. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.

In a separate case, Felvus also pleaded guilty to three charges of possession of an indecent photograph of a child and to committing 13 acts of voyeurism. He received a custodial sentence and was placed on the sex offenders' register for ten years.

TorrentFreak adds that Smith was employed by an anti-piracy company that worked with the Premier League to ensure pirate services were blocked by ISPs when they were broadcast. He is said to have acted as a mole, selling information gathered from his place of work.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/98887-operators-uk-largest-illegal-streaming-service-jailed-over.html

 

[winjer]

If they were rapping children, stabbing people in the streets, or robbing millions from tax payers, they would have gotten a much smaller sentence.

 

[error1984]

£600m tax free or nothing

 

[pitkin]

It's greed that turns people away from legitimate services.
Flawless IPTV proves people are prepared to pay to watch this stuff, just not all are prepared to pay those prices.
I remember a time before all this pay tv in the UK. Then along came some rich Australian who outbid all the TV channels so he could charge us for the same content. At first it was all included in the one subscription price. Then he decided to split the channels up to make packages, then have new movies, and live sporting events as one off payments.

They milked what used to be free too much.

 

[Hooda Thunkett]

Man, this was a wild story.
"...following a five-year private prosecution..."
Today I learned that you can get a prison sentence in the U.K. from being privately sued.

"A pay dispute between the men led to Gordon and Jolley launching a service called Optimal in 2018, but it failed due to Gould and Brown infecting its servers with malware, writes the Daily Mail."
Wow. Just wow. No honor amongst thieves.

"TorrentFreak adds that Smith was employed by an anti-piracy company that worked with the Premier League to ensure pirate services were blocked by ISPs when they were broadcast. He is said to have acted as a mole, selling information gathered from his place of work."
Really? An inside job? Who woulda ever thought of that? /s

 

[mcnabney]

TIL that the Premiere League is charging $75-100 (60-80 pounds?) per month to watch live soccer.

I think I understand how such a robust piracy market exists...

 

[sorten]

Jailed for "over 30 years" cumulatively, I guess. The less sensational representation of the facts is less impressive, but it should act as a mild deterrent.

Edit: I guess it you compare it to the Liz Holmes trial, then it comes across as fairly punitive. She made billions and is only serving 11 years. The "kingpin" of this operation only made $6M and is serving roughly one year per $1M.

 

[toooooot]

I was going to express condolences but then read about millions and decided not to.

 

[toooooot]

TIL that the Premiere League is charging $75-100 (60-80 pounds?) per month to watch live soccer.

I think I understand how such a robust piracy market exists...

Champions League is much cheaper with Paramaunt+. BPl must be expensive, it is the most entertaining league to watch. UEFA evn wants to make new rules hoping it would limit how much English clubs earn and therefore bring equality. I don't think that is wise or fair. They earned it.

 

[Hodor]

"Gould, who benefitted most from the crimes, was sentenced to 11 years for two counts of conspiracy to defraud and contempt of court."

What? A **CONSPIRACY** ?? But how? When mainstream media is convincing every day that conspiracies don't exist. And that only idi-ots believe in conspiracy theories. And now it turns out UK judges are conspiracy theorists. Who could have thought that