SIS has praised a UK court’s decision to sentence a Norfolk man to 12 months in jail for selling devices which provide illegal access to SIS sports channels.
William Marston, who traded as “Billie the Bookmaker” was given a custodial sentence at Norwich Crown last month, after admitting to selling unauthorized decoders which were adapted to enable access to encrypted transmissions between December 2013 and April 2016.
The Judge rejected Marston’s claim that he made little to no profit and is believed to have made £20,000 while the value of the lost subscriptions to SIS was at least £2 million.
Marston was handed a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for two years and will be tagged and subject to a curfew from 8 pm to 6 am for a period of six months.
Marston’s arrest at his home in Norwich by officers from Norwich in April follows a joint investigation by the “Federation Against Copyright Theft” (FACT) and SIS. He pleaded guilty to three charges under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 in July of this year.
Kevin Smith, SIS General Counsel, commented on Marston’s sentence by saying that they welcome this conviction and hope it sends out a strong message to anyone looking to profit illegally from their channels. He added that they will continue to work closely with law enforcement and the industry to protect their intellectual property and safeguard the business interests of both their customers and rights holder partners.
Kieron Sharp, Director General of FACT, added that disrupting illegal sports streaming is a key priority for FACT as this criminality defrauds sports rights owners and TV broadcasters of hundreds of millions of pounds a year.