Is watching UK TV in Spain legal?

Is watching UK TV in Spain legal? A question that has confused expats living in Spain for several years. And the answer is yes and no. It all depends which UK TV channels, and how you watch them. Is watching free to air UK TV channels like BBC ITV in Spain legal? Firstly, the free to air UK TV channels like BBC ITV C4 and Fives. It is not illegal to watch these channels via satellite direct from the broadcasters. More : http://www.satandpcguy.com/blog/2015/08/is-watching-uk-tv-in-spain-legal/

UK Police crackdown on pirated goods (Android TV boxes) on offer on Facebook

Trading standards officers and police are carrying out a crackdown across England, Wales and Northern Ireland against those who offer pirate and counterfeit products via Facebook.

Interestingly, 'pirate' Android boxes have been targeted again, for streaming content illegally.

Facebook accounts are more and more being used as a way to distribute pirated content..
Operated by the National Trading Standards eCrime Team alongside the National Markets Group (with members the BPI, Federation against Copyright Theft and the Alliance for Intellectual Property Theft) Operation Jasper is manned by officers from police and government agencies and is reportedly the largest operation of its type. It is targeted at “criminals” who exploit social media to commit “copyright theft” and sell “dangerous and counterfeit” goods.

http://www.satandpcguy.com/blog/2015/06/uk-police-crackdown-on-pirated-goods-on-offer-on-facebook/

Sky Deutschland card sharing pirates convicted

Sky Germany card share operators convicted - with users of the system also being charged with fraud.

http://www.satandpcguy.com/blog/2015/02/sky-deutschland-card-sharing-pirates-convicted/

Danish police shut cardsharing website

Police in Denmark has closed down the cardsharing.dk website, for the first time confiscating the domain itself.

The website has long been a thorn in the side of local pay-TV operators Canal Digital and Viasat. The site had offered ‘pirate’ subscriptions to the platforms through so-called card sharing over the internet.

The public prosecutor for serious economic crime said this was the first time that police had taken over a domain in connection with a criminal case.

In order to carry it out it was necessary for the attorney general to ask a court for approval in transferring the domain.

The case came to the attention of the authorities following the intervention of the pan-Nordic anti-piracy organization STOP.

Separately, the Swedish culture minister Lena Adelsohn Roth says the government there intends to introduce legislation making it illegal to watch pay-TV without paying the fee.

It intends to make devices for unpaid reception of pay-TV channels illegal.

Card sharing networks are already illegal in Sweden.

FA Premier League clamps down on illegal football streams

The Premier League has announced a clampdown on websites hosting illegal streams of matches.
Top-flight officials recently confirmed that 30,000 offending sites were put to an end during the last season, stamping out around 75 streams per match played.

Barclays Premier League officials enlisted the help of a company called NetResult, which scans the web for illegitimate streaming activity and blocks sites at the source, BBC News reports.

"If you want top quality football, it costs money," said a Premier League spokesperson. "It's not just about star performers getting paid well, it's about investment in facilities and youth development."
NetResult's Tim Cooper says that the firm aims to shut down around 80% of illegal streams, as eliminating them entirely has proved problematic.

"It is a case of 'whack-a-mole'. One disappears and another one comes back online," he said. "I'm sure people who've tried to view Premier League content have found that it's not the best experience.
"Streams can lag, they can be shut down, you have to find another one."

Critics of the Premier League's crackdown have pointed out that the governing body fails to provide a cost-effective means of watching all of their team's matches without subscribing to a service such as Sky.

A UK law has been passed meaning illegal downloaders could be sent warning letters and even have their broadband cut off.

Ofcom says it's not yet clear how that applies to streaming, and that no letters will be sent out until 2014.

The manager of one sports streaming site, based in the UK defended his site in an email comparing it to a search engine.

He wrote: "If a person walked up to me in the street and asked directions to Barclays Bank and then went there and robbed it, would that make me a co-conspirator in a bank robbery?

"In reality the person who is doing the streaming is the person who authorities should be chasing."

The Premier League agreed a £760 million a year deal with Sky, and another with BT for the 2013-2014 season earlier this year

source: http://www.satandpcguy.com/forum/showthread.php/112340-Premier-League-clamps-down-on-illegal-football-streams

Police investigate hacking of Canal+ in Spain - card sharing network investigated

According to reports, a judge in Alicante, Spain, is investigating a network dedicated to hacking the internet signal for the Canal+ platform, according to sources close to the investigation.

The investigation, which is the responsibility of the Technology Crime Brigade National Police, involves dozens of people in Spain in the Cordoba town of Lucena.

It is alleged that a users' forum illegally discharged the signal, a type of crime known as card sharing, which provides illicit access to pay-TV broadcasts.

The Alicante court has identified two of the users, while a third has been accused, according to sources.

The police investigations are continuing, with fraud relating to Digital+, Csat, Canal+ (France), Premiere (Germany), Canal Digital (Holland), BSkyB (Sky TV UK) and other similar pay-TV operators.

source: rapidtvnews.com/index.php/2012062322639/police-investigate-hacking-of-digital-in-spain.html

UK TV in Spain gets more complicated....

The National Police have arrested 60 people in connection with an investigation against the piracy of pay-TV channels. Among those arrested include hotel managers and presidents of neighboring communities that have defrauded a total of several million euros.

It appears that not only were these systems providing pay tv channels via "web streaming", but as a result of this investigation it was discovered that several local cable networks in Tenerife, Malaga, Cadiz, Cordoba and Granada, were 'rebroadacsting' specific channels and content to its subscribers, without the required authorizations.

and there is more....from a local news site

The one common denominator of all these rebroadcasting companies is that
they rebroadcast Free To Air (FTA) television signals however; none of them seem
to be able to provide legal paperwork stating that they have paid for the rights from each and every one of the FTA channels to do so. BBC and ITV have stated that they do not have the rights to sell on their own channel rebroadcasting rights as they themselves negotiate rates with hundreds of individual production companies for the UK rights and these do not cover Europe. Confused? No wonder it’s taking so long to come to the Spanish Court system!
The first nail in the rebroadcasting coffin may be that the Spanish Secretary of
Telecommunications is now aware of the rebroadcasting of the Torresat Group
amongst others and that the distributor Filmax is considering taking action
against those using their content without the correct licences in place.

I would not be surprised if there are more police action over the coming months, and those rebroadcsat systems that are still showing Pay TV channels like Sky Sports may well have a visit in the near future.....
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