Some IPTV pirates inject malware into the software that their customers download. The hassle of having to constantly switch providers is just one of the main downsides of using illegal IPTV services to watch TV. The algorithms that power digital fingerprinting software can instantly recognize the unique aspects of any type of copyrighted content. Digital fingerprinting is even more convenient because it can be implemented without modifying the source stream in any way. Once embedded, authorities can use software to scan the internet when they want to check to see if the stream is being distributed illegally. Forensic watermarking and digital fingerprinting are just a few of the techniques that are being used to make it harder for IPTV pirates to operate.įorensic watermarking lets content owners embed unique serial numbers into their streams. They are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to shut down unauthorized streaming services.Ĭontent creators are developing new ways to protect their intellectual property, as well. Onsist, FAST and Copyright Hero are just a few of the growing number of agencies that specialize in identifying and tracking down copyright infringers. The illegal services that have managed to evade authorities thus far probably won’t be around for long. In Europe, Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN is training the police how to identify and track down illegal TV services. In December of last year, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided a Canada-based pirate’s home and and seized 150 hardware items. The Set TV crackdown is part of a larger trend. Many of them likely paid in advance to take advantage subscription discounts. Though you may shave money off of your entertainment bill with an illegal IPTV service, you’ll be left holding the bag if it disappears overnight.Īfter copyright enforcers shut Set TV down, all of the company’s subscribers lost their TV access– and nobody got a refund. Authorities are catching up with IPTV crooks On the surface, the promise of getting more entertainment for less money seems like a good way to save. At the same time, wages in the US, Europe and Canada remain stagnant. According to USA Today, traditional cable subscribers are still paying around $85/month for service. It’s easy to understand the appeal of low-priced black market TV. Because some illegal IPTV services look legitimate on the surface (with all the bells and whistles, including digital TV streaming guides), it’s hard to prevent TV pirates from taking advantage of paid ad networks. The fact that so many people are willing to buy IPTV subscriptions has made it profitable for pirates to invest in Google and Facebook ads. The black market industry is estimated to be worth more than a billion dollars worldwide. A billion-dollar black market industryĪccording to a 2018 study published by Canadian broadband management company Sandvine, 5.5% of US and Canadian households use pirate IPTV services. The purveyors of these shady services are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to market to people that are sick of paying high cable prices. A cursory look around the web reveals that there are now vast numbers of them. But lawsuits and crackdowns haven’t seemed to phase streaming pirates. Set TV is just one of several illegal IPTV services that authorities have shut down over the past several months. Related : Set TV Is Definitely Not a Legitimate Streaming Service The verdict : Set TV was ordered to pay Dish Network $90,199,000 in damages. Several months later, Dish Network and others took the company to court. When we reached out to Set TV’s customer support team to find out if it had in fact purchased the rights to stream the 500+ channels that it carried, the company refused to prove that it was legitimate. Other information we found– like its “F” Better Business Bureau rating - also seemed like red flags. After looking into the company, we learned that its founder Jason Labossiere had tried to use YouTube videos to market an illegal diet plan. At the end of 2017, Flixed was one of the first cord-cutter blogs to notice that there was something fishy about the popular streaming service startup known as Set TV.
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