Sky Gets Irish Court Order to Expose 300+ IPTV Subscribers

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Originally published at: Sky Gets Irish Court Order to Expose 300+ IPTV Subscribers

Ireland’s High Court has granted Sky a court order forcing Revolut Bank to hand over personal details of 304 pirate IPTV subscribers and 10 resellers. This marks the first time Irish IPTV end users have been directly targeted by rightsholders. The order stems from the case of David Dunbar, a Wexford man behind the now-defunct…

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Will this ever happen to US consumers

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Doubtful due to very different laws but you never know in the future…

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What about Irish law makes this easier there? Just curious. You don’t normally hear about end-users having trouble in the US so I’m wondering how big a concern we’re talking about.

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We are not attorneys, but after some research here is what I found:

  • The “Discovery” Process: In Ireland, rightsholders like Sky can use a specific legal tool called a Norwich Pharmacal order. This allows them to go to court and force a third party (like the bank Revolut) to hand over the names and addresses of people involved in “wrongdoing,” even if those people are just the end-users.

  • Ease of Access to Data: The Irish High Court has recently shown a much higher willingness to grant these orders against banks. In the US, while not impossible, it is generally much more difficult and expensive for a company to subpoena a bank for the personal records of hundreds of individual “viewers” in a civil copyright case.

  • Focus of the Law: US copyright laws (like the DMCA) are primarily designed to target the “big fish”—the people hosting and selling the illegal streams. Because the US legal system is so expensive, it’s usually not cost-effective for a company to sue an individual subscriber for a few hundred dollars. In Ireland, they are currently using these court orders to “make an example” of people to scare others back to legal services.

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Wow - thanks for the thoughtful reply!

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Makes it a good idea to use Russian or Chinese provider of IPTV. It’s doubtful these providers will ever go to court or provide account information.

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US laws are different, check .
Europe is a one sport union. Anything to save Soccer, sport where you can watch for hours hoping for someone/anyone to score a point. Blink and you missed it. I get it, soccer is fine but…

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RIAA did just that about 20 years ago. It targeted colleges but went after individua students based on suing the colleges for the individual users IP addresses. It took about 3 years for them to just give up, but only after hundreds, maybe thousands, of students (ie parents) paid a “voluntary” fine of $2000-$3000! Those that didn’t pay eventually got away with it.