Things are getting very ugly for piracy in 2024. After the arrival of Piracy Shield in Italy, historic news has now been revealed, in this case for Spain. The Provincial Court of Pontevedra has condemned the company Engel Systems and its directors for a crime against intellectual property.
This is the first time in this country that a company has been convicted of selling pirated IPTV services, a precedent that could mark a before and after in the fight against this type of crime and be the beginning of the end for many others.
As has been known, This company sold decoders that allowed you to access payment channels fraudulently. To give you a slight idea, these decoders were all in one, since they had a file installed that gave users access to Movistar Plus+, Bein Sport, Sky Sport, movies and series.
In particular, the seven Engel workers, including the managers, have been sentenced with fines ranging from 540 euros to 7,290 euros. The specific company has been fined 673,000 euros and in addition, they have been prohibited from selling decoders again and the managers have been disqualified for seven years.
A cover that is going to be very expensive: pirate IPTV in Spain could come to an end
As for the modus operandi, the truth is that it is worth knowing. This small company was operating from late 2010 until May 2016. During this time, it evolved its methods of circumventing the law. They started with the model of cardsharingwhich consisted of sharing a completely legal subscriber card with thousands of users, thus reducing the cost for each of them.
Subsequently, the company migrated to the IPTV system, which is more popular today and allows access to a network of servers that retransmit pay channels illegally. To increase its sales, it carried out periodic blackouts on its servers, forcing users to buy a new decoder to regain access to the channels..
The plot was dismantled in May 2016 when the police raided the headquarters of Engel Systems in Malaga, Madrid and Barcelona, as well as those of its partners in Lugo, Rivas-Vaciamadrid and Palma de Mallorca. Servers in Germany and Lithuania were also searched, and houses where files were found to hack the signal of the affected companies.
The post First conviction of a company in Spain for selling pirated IPTV services with a fine of 670,000 euros first appeared on Gearrice.