Sky Wins Irish Court Order to Unmask 300 Pirate IPTV Users via Revolut Bank

3/29/2026 at 10:00:31 PM

I'm pretty uneasy about legal action against the subscribers themselves. If you can prove intent, maybe? But I'd argue many or even most don't realize they're doing anything illegal.

These IPTV companies, in my experience, never advertise that it's illegal. It's just give us money for a lot of TV channels, just like a cable company does.

by silisili

3/29/2026 at 11:09:18 PM

I'm not familiar with how these IPTV companies market their services, but I'm extremely skeptical of the notion that people don't realize they're buying something illegal when they're paying a small percentage of what the services themselves would cost.

It's like those folks that sold bootleg DVDs out of their trenchcoats in Manhattan - the defense of "gosh, I never knew buying a just-released-in-theaters Hollywood blockbuster for $5 by some dude on the side of Broadway was illegal" was never going to fly.

by hn_throwaway_99

3/30/2026 at 12:02:00 AM

> don't realize they're buying something illegal when they're paying a small percentage of what the services themselves would cost

Possibly, but not always. When Red Pocket and the other cheap mvnos came around, people were skeptical for the same reason - but it was all above board.

Pricing depends on sales channel and price. If you slum the dregs of shady marketplaces, you can get it for like 3 or 4 bucks a month. But in more mainstream settings, resellers often try to charge as much as 20 or 30 (or more) per month which isn't quite as drastic.

In the US, a few people in my mom's friend circle were raving about their 'magic box.' It cost a couple hundred but got TV, so they were happy. AFAICT it's some shady actors buying cheap android boxes and flashing some iptv software with service preconfigured. These people don't even know they're using iptv.

by silisili

3/30/2026 at 12:33:49 AM

They’re literally calling dodgy boxes here by both the consumers and sellers. Look, make the case in court if you want, you might get off with a slap, and nobody’s rooting for the big bad corporation here either, but nobody is under any illusions that these are legal

by Macha

3/30/2026 at 9:12:32 AM

Not necessarily. Any Android TV box would do, doesn't need to be a dodgy one.

Not that I would ever do such a thing, of course.

by surgical_fire

3/29/2026 at 11:27:19 PM

> It's like those folks that sold bootleg DVDs out of their trenchcoats in Manhattan - the defense of "gosh, I never knew buying a just-released-in-theaters Hollywood blockbuster for $5 by some dude on the side of Broadway was illegal" was never going to fly.

Is buying bootleg DVDs actually illegal? Isn’t the thing protected by copyright distribution? The seller is doing the distribution, I’m only buying it so it’s fine, no?

by echoangle

3/30/2026 at 1:30:53 AM

It’s a little different because it’s easy for these IPTV pirates to whip up slick branding. Something more like if a guy in a nice looking uniform for a DVD company you hadn’t heard of offered to sell you movies. Especially for folks who aren’t very internet savvy, it can be easy to miss the subtle tells that an offering isn’t legit (even more so when the service works just fine)

by lurkshark

3/30/2026 at 12:05:32 AM

It's definitely a gray area in some countries.

A few decades ago our family got a 'proper' company with a shop front to install a satellite dish for us. We were then able to watch the Sky Tv from the UK even though we were not based in the UK (we still paid for a subscription but it was billed to a proxy address). This was the 'gray' part of what the company was selling.

What they also sold was sattv boxes with integrated decryption that would allow you to watch pretty much any European Pay TV (albeit not Sky, as they used a more robust encryption scheme) for free. They never mentioned the legality of it but they definitely advertised it as something they openly sold (in shop and in their ads).

by koyote

3/29/2026 at 11:38:39 PM

More like buying the hacked DirecTV Sim cards.

by xtracto

3/30/2026 at 2:53:39 AM

>but I'm extremely skeptical of the notion that people don't realize they're buying something illegal when they're paying a small percentage of what the services themselves would cost.

Why? There's lots of cases where there's much-cheaper alternatives. I have a mobile phone plan that costs a small fraction of what most of my coworkers pay, because I didn't get a full-service unlimited plan with a subsidized new-every-2-years phone, for instance. Is my phone company hacking into the other company's system to give me service? Who knows, but I trust the government regulators and judicial system enough to assume this isn't happening, or else the company they're riding on the back of would have the service stopped. In reality, low-cost mobile services like this contract with the big carriers to use their spare capacity, and the service is basically 2nd-class too.

It's not a consumer's job to know how businesses operate internally or if they're doing something illegal.

by shiroiuma

3/30/2026 at 9:03:01 AM

> but I'm extremely skeptical of the notion that people don't realize they're buying something illegal when they're paying a small percentage of what the services themselves would cost.

Can you PROVE they knew it's illegal service?

It's not what you know, it's what you can prove.

https://youtu.be/1hUWPBvppvU?si=WtYEX12H3kxRlKUU&t=8

And honestly many of these websites look really professional and even legal services have various very cheap promotions, so good luck proving they knew they were paying for illegal service. It's exact same reason why in EU uploading copyrighted movie is illegal, but downloading it is legal, since you can't know whether the source is legal or not unless they would advertise with big letters THIS IS ILLEGAL DOWNLOAD FOR YOU.

by Markoff

3/29/2026 at 11:37:20 PM

[dead]

by vaginaphobic

3/30/2026 at 3:57:53 AM

People refer to them as “dodgy boxes”. They know it’s illegal and no one cares.

Everyone in the country knows this and either has one or a family member has one

by HtmlProgrammer

3/30/2026 at 2:04:01 PM

Yeah, I think when people are getting hundreds, or thousands of channels cheaper from some off-brand name, or from a referral from a bloke down the pub, they know what's what.

It's like buying something from the local market, those Adidas trackies are either a knock-off copy, or knocked-off stolen, but if they're 1/4 the price then they're still going to sell to someone.

The only thing I'd point out is that a security researcher found that a significant number of those grey market pirate boxes they tested had malware on them. So using them can open you up to a whole lot of risk. After all, there's no accountability for those pirates!

by bobdvb

3/30/2026 at 9:29:16 PM

Everyone knows it's illegal in the UK and Ireland. They also think they won't get any punishment. Which is the point of this judgement.

by rjh29

3/30/2026 at 6:50:29 PM

>most don't realize they're doing anything illegal

I'm not sure they are. I watch stuff on youtube and some probably violates someone's copyright which is an issue for the people posting it but I'm not sure I've broken the law by watching it? Obviously laws vary by which legal system you are involved with.

by tim333

3/30/2026 at 7:20:05 PM

The colloquial term for these services/devices in Ireland is "dodgy box", alluding to the box of shady origins you hook up to your tv.

I'm pretty sure most users know that using the service is... "dodgy".

Paying for this via a bank is just asking for trouble!

by beAbU

3/29/2026 at 10:31:41 PM

Huh, Ireland has copied English law so precisely that it also has Norwich Pharmacal and Anton Pillar orders?

(De anonymozation of third parties and non-crime search warrants respectively)

by pjc50

3/30/2026 at 12:14:29 AM

What do you mean by copied? Ireland was colonised by the English for many years, and was part of their common law system during that period.

When it became independent, all laws weren't suddenly repealed, some were just ammended over time (as any common law system does). It's my understanding that Irish Courts can still refer to court cases from other common law countries in terms of precidence, even now

by roomey

3/30/2026 at 10:04:47 AM

As you say, Irish law is a “fork” of the jurisprudence system established by British rule. However, both Norwich Pharmacal and Anton Pillar orders are much more recent than Irish independence so it seems that we have since adopted both of these orders into our legal system (I am not a lawyer and only just learned of their existence today).

The Wikipedia article on Anton Piller orders¹ has this to say about their use in Ireland:

> Anton Piller orders have been granted by the High Court in William A. Grogan (copyright owner of RAMDIS) v. Monaghan Electrical Ltd & Michael Traynor (1998) related to an unlicensed copy of the RAMDIS software system, Joblin-Purser v. Jackman and Microsoft v. Brightpoint, but the issue has not come before the Supreme Court and, owing to the civil nature of the order and the strong protection given to the family home in the constitution, it currently exists in something of a grey area.

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Piller_order#Ireland

by Anthony-G

3/29/2026 at 11:16:47 PM

I guess that the legal framework that enables the orders was inherited by the Irish state. (according to wikipedia the orders can be made in Canada and Australia too)

by pjriot

3/30/2026 at 11:16:29 AM

I wonder why all those articles about video streaming pirates use the term IPTV to describe illegal video streaming services.

IPTV is a term for some clearly standardized and perfectly legal technology to deliver television services. Check the wikipedia page and definitions maybe [0]

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol_television

by bar000n

3/30/2026 at 1:57:01 PM

As someone in the media technology business, it's very frustrating for me that the pirate streaming industry has co-opted the name IPTV for it's offerings.

But it's not the articles that are driving it, it's the pirates themselves who have done it and the articles following that nomenclature. If you go online the search results for IPTV are very much about pirate services and tools now.

In the previous work I was involved in, I was responsible for technical measures against piracy and had to get comfortable with the services being called IPTV.

by bobdvb

3/30/2026 at 10:24:11 AM

This won't do anything. They'll just take crypto from now on, and the boxes will start running over a VPN of some kind, I'm sure.

Personally I would never do piracy without both of these protections. It's not perfect but it doesn't matter. You just have to be harder to catch than the lowest hanging fruit.

Like the guy running from a bear said to the other guy: I don't have to outrun the bear, just to be faster than you :)

by wolvoleo

3/30/2026 at 12:43:04 AM

Home Taping Is Killing Music

by zoklet-enjoyer

3/30/2026 at 3:02:42 AM

We left side 2 blank so you can help

by amiga386

3/30/2026 at 9:48:17 AM

When I worked at Sky building tests for their set top boxes, part of the tour of the site involved then showing off / gloating about how they go after people - it left a bad taste in the mouth.

by stuaxo

3/30/2026 at 1:16:17 AM

Sky should sue the AI companies if they want to protect their copyright. Anything else is a joke and an insult to fair laws.

by AuthAuth

3/30/2026 at 8:56:54 AM

honestly if you pay to pirate, you kinda deserve it (same with the Plex share and Kodi guys), I have so many IPTV streams available for free, there is no time for me to watch them all, I can watch F1 from like 3-4 different streams, same with MotoGP, NLHTV, NBATV, I had olympics from like 10 different TV channels including Spanish (Teledeporte), Hungarian (M4 Sport), Serbian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Chinese, Czech, Slovak, German and dunno what else, you just need to know where to look [1]

[1] https://youtu.be/Fb5-Lts5EPs?si=18f8_A5ky-7kw_XW&t=131

this is probably good start for amateurs (you can watch them in VLC through CTRL+N or just install on Android TV some viewer like OTT Navigator)

https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv/blob/master/PLAYLISTS.md

by Markoff

3/29/2026 at 10:06:30 PM

[flagged]

by Asooka

3/29/2026 at 10:25:24 PM

Non-sequitur. The Internet only enables the copying of bits and not their theft, as the original bits aren't removed from their source. A remote-copy-and-delete might be considered a theft, but Bittorrent has no delete provisions and that's not really inherent to the infrastructure of the Internet per se (e.g. your network card can't physically make bits on the other side in storage disappear).

by RiverCrochet

3/29/2026 at 10:30:04 PM

For example:

Good. The internet is meant to uplift human society, not enable petty theft. If only they could have gone after each thief to take back the money they stole.

- signed, not-Asooka

by orbisvicis

3/29/2026 at 10:42:40 PM

There's a difference between "I am the creator of this content [that I actually didn't create]" and "I am enjoying this content that I did not create." One could argue that it matters, in the latter case, whether you are enjoying the content in a manner with the creator's intention of how you enjoyed it, but, to state one among many possible responses, it is far from clear when I consume media through approved channels that that accurately represents how the creator would prefer I enjoy it.

by JadeNB

3/29/2026 at 10:39:33 PM

That's why I don't feel bad pirating textbooks.

by orbisvicis

3/29/2026 at 11:56:28 PM

Screw the author's labor, eh?

by lo_zamoyski

3/30/2026 at 1:05:20 AM

Well, this is part of the problem. Sometimes "the author's labor" amounts to reordering questions at the back to mark it as new revision and charge 150+ usd for a book that should have been $20 brand new, and is only purchased because it's a required title in a required class to get a piece of paper required for employment.

In that case... Fuck yes. Screw the author's "labor". Arguably, screw the whole damn system.

---

It usually gets employed by conglomerates that own distribution and are already screwing authors as hard as they think they can get away with.

It's genuinely a pretty terrible system in its current form.

We can do better.

by horsawlarway

3/30/2026 at 9:34:16 PM

The textbook thing was a non issue when I was in college. Previous year books were sold on to the next year, and lecturers gave us page numbers for at least two editions.

I think all of the books for my year were about $150, not just one.

Now I'd assume everyone is using digital books so it might be different.

by rjh29

3/30/2026 at 9:00:29 AM

The problem there isn't copyright. It's whoever is demanding students use the latest version.

> Copyright rarely helps small authors who actually need it. > > It usually gets employed by conglomerates that own distribution and are already screwing authors as hard as they think they can get away with.

Do you think these small authors have the resources to try to enforce copyright?

by furryrain

3/30/2026 at 4:22:27 PM

Let's take the emotion out of this, because it is clouding your judgement. There are a number of distinctions that must be made.

1. The actual labor of an author. Writing a book requires a nontrivial amount of labor. This cannot be ignored. You cannot categorically say that you have a right to the labor of an author and the publisher.

2. The dishonest business practices of publishers (and some authors). I agree that university textbooks often follow this model, but that is largely a flaw with the American university education system which has long abandoned education as its primary aim. The money-making schemes around education are downright criminal, and it is disgusting that universities abet and enable them.

3. The distribution of books where this is a problem. Most published books do not go through successive bogus editions that only reorder the exercises in the back. W.r.t. university texts, I've had professors who use old books published decades ago (e.g., Dover, which are cheap) and these tend to better than the glossy tomes many professors seem to prefer for some reason. There is absolutely no reason for a 30th edition book on basic number theory or the foundations of Newtonian physics.

Professors are first and foremost pedagogues, hence why I think the research university is a grave injustice toward students, where pedagogy takes a back seat. Each professor should effectively be writing his own "textbook". This doesn't have to be a published tome. Orally-delivered or via lecture notes, doesn't matter.

by lo_zamoyski

3/31/2026 at 5:18:47 PM

> Let's take the emotion out of this, because it is clouding your judgement.

Why make this point?

Address my actual content - I believe we can do better than modern copyright (personally - I think "no copyright" is likely a better and more ethical solution than the modern incarnation, but that's a real discussion, and there are FAR too many leeches (excuse me - vested interests) for this reasoning to gain traction in western countries).

I think modern copyright is at the root of an absolutely incredible amount of rent-seeking behavior, and I think we both agree on that point.

You state: "The money-making schemes around education are downright criminal, and it is disgusting that universities abet and enable them."

But copyright enables these exact money-making schemes, and it does so on a level far beyond the damage done by universities alone. We see this across huge swathes of the economy.

Again, my opinion is that current copyright laws have become a tool that facilitates stagnation, enriches middlemen rather than funds authors or creatives of any type, and are largely harmful to society.

That's NOT a condemnation of copyright as a concept, I believe there are implementations that can be much more fruitful. But what the US promotes is, well, a steaming pile of horse-*&^% that reeks so bad we'd be better off washing it away entirely.

So to your points:

> 1. The actual labor of an author. Writing a book requires a nontrivial amount of labor. This cannot be ignored. You cannot categorically say that you have a right to the labor of an author and the publisher.

I entirely agree, work should be compensated. I don't believe that work entitles you to a revenue stream for eternity, or functional eternity (ex: life of author plus 70 FUCKING YEARS). We don't pay the skilled workers who build houses for every month someone stays in them. They do work in exchange for a set payment. They don't get payment forever in exchange for one-time work.

> 2. The dishonest business practices of publishers (and some authors). I agree that university textbooks often follow this model, but that is largely a flaw with the American university education system which has long abandoned education as its primary aim. The money-making schemes around education are downright criminal, and it is disgusting that universities abet and enable them.

We both agree, no argument here.

> 3. The distribution of books where this is a problem. Most published books do not go through successive bogus editions that only reorder the exercises in the back. W.r.t. university texts, I've had professors who use old books published decades ago (e.g., Dover, which are cheap) and these tend to better than the glossy tomes many professors seem to prefer for some reason. There is absolutely no reason for a 30th edition book on basic number theory or the foundations of Newtonian physics.

Yes, people can and do act ethically at times, all on their own. Those people are great, but we're not referring to them, we're referring to the systemic problems of copyright that enable the opposite behavior. The world could be so much better if more people acted in this manner, but human nature implies we're not dealing with that world.

by horsawlarway

3/30/2026 at 3:01:20 AM

Yes. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications,_Inc._v._Ru.... - "sweat of the brow" does not confer copyright, only creativity does.

More to the point: the reason you find so many people advocating for pirating textbooks specifically, is because textbooks have often been used by authors/institutions/publishers to fleece students:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textbook#New_editions_and_the_...

> Some textbook companies have countered [the second hand market] by encouraging teachers to assign homework that must be done on the publisher's website. Students with a new textbook can use the pass code in the book to register on the site; otherwise they must pay the publisher to access the website and complete assigned homework.

> Harvard economics chair James K. Stock has stated that new editions are often not about significant improvements to the content. "New editions are to a considerable extent simply another tool used by publishers and textbook authors to maintain their revenue stream, that is, to keep up prices."

Students can tell when they're being scammed, and are more than happy to go to war with scammers such as these.

by amiga386

3/30/2026 at 1:20:28 AM

Who's labor wad exploited by said publisher?

I would personally love and do support ethical publishers /companies and authors themselves but I refuse to engage with the exploiting kind, since there is effectively little difference between them and pirates.

by 0dayz

3/30/2026 at 4:30:00 AM

This isn’t as clear cut as pirating a book, movie or a game. If you pirate one of those, your intent is probably to consume it. Buying an IPTV subscription does not clearly indicate that you’re intending to pirate some specific channel, in fact there’s no guarantee that you’re not consuming something licensed under Creative Commons.

by hsbauauvhabzb

3/29/2026 at 10:37:59 PM

Buddy we’d still be listening to cds if pirating didn’t exist.

by KumaBear

3/29/2026 at 11:55:38 PM

Spotify started out pirating.

by actionfromafar

3/30/2026 at 12:57:03 AM

As did Crunchyroll.

by Cyph0n

3/30/2026 at 9:41:34 AM

And OpenAI, Meta/Llama and Anthropic.

Oh wait, they make billions with it so that makes it fair use.

by wolvoleo

3/29/2026 at 11:59:50 PM

/s?

by Telaneo

3/29/2026 at 10:14:49 PM

You’ll find that a pretty unpopular attitude around here (hence the downvoting on your comment, and I assume mine shortly), but you are right.

by tene80i

3/29/2026 at 11:29:10 PM

It’s unpopular because it’s a bad argument. It’s not theft because you don’t take anything away. You just create a copy and don’t pay for it, but that’s not theft.

by echoangle

3/29/2026 at 11:38:47 PM

It might not be theft but it's not nothing either. Manslaughter isn't murder but someone still died. Copying might not be theft but you're still taking something you didn't pay for.

by hrimfaxi

3/30/2026 at 12:00:40 AM

Then use an accurate legal term for it, "copyright infringement", or a pejorative that both supporters and detractors agree on, e.g. "piracy"

by amiga386

3/30/2026 at 12:35:04 AM

But it's not piracy either. People just want to make the crime sound worse then "infringement" Might as well call it "software rape" as that crime is closer to what is being done than than theft or piracy.

by somat

3/30/2026 at 12:36:44 AM

It is an infringement on one's right to control the reproduction and distribution of their intellectual property.

This right is enforced by the authority that grants it. Viewing, listening, or otherwise 'consuming' this IP is not and cannot be an infringement on these rights. Those who provide are responsible.

If a country does not grant or enforce this right (or on behalf of others) then there is no infringment possible in that jurisdiction. cf. China or Russia.

Moral arguments beyond that are your own and should be clearly segregated from the law. Murder is, almost universally, both criminal and wrong. "Piracy" requires more attention to detail in order to have productive conversations.

by zenoprax

3/30/2026 at 12:41:02 AM

A spy steals secrets. Credit can be stolen from you by your boss. Your competitor steals your ideas. In colloquial usage, theft is the act of stealing. The legal term is copyright infringement.

by DrJokepu

3/30/2026 at 4:22:08 AM

When you "steal" a secret, it's not longer a secret. When you "steal" credit, the original thinker no longer gets credit. In both cases, the thing itself was destroyed: in the former, the secret is no longer a secret at all and in the latter the boss will no longer be considered the mastermind behind the idea. When you "pirate" something the original copy remains and the creator retains it and the rights to sell copies of it and will still benefit from selling copies. It's not theft.

by DangitBobby

3/30/2026 at 9:08:08 AM

Is it even a theft if I watch publically available unlocked IPTV streams? I mean if they don't want people without paid access to watch them they should protect them with unique logins/passwords and this is valid for whatever IPTV provider (not specific to channels themselves).

by Markoff