Today, a man was sentenced for being involved in the operation of the illegal IPTV service Viking IPTV. He is sentenced to suspended sentence and fines. He must also pay damages to the right holders.
During the trial in the Patent and Market Court (PMD), much evidence was presented about the man’s involvement in the service and the huge amounts it brought. Among other things, the man logged into the service’s support email and administered the service’s Facebook page. Much evidence was also found on the man’s mobile phone.
As for most other illegal IPTV services, payment for the service was made mainly with bitcoins. In practice, customers simply pay a Bitcoin exchanger via the Swedish mobile payment service Swish. The exchanger then forwards the money to the criminals behind the service and the wallet of their choice.
Viking IPTV had several thousand customers and turned over an enormous amount of money. An analysis carried out by the police’s cryptocurrency analyst shows that clusters of Bitcoin wallets that could be linked to the man have received roughly 308 bitcoins in the years 2018 to 2022. At today’s exchange rate, this corresponds to over SEK 200 million. Accessing and seizing cryptocurrency can be difficult, but in this case, the police managed to secure a whopping 12.7 Bitcoin (almost SEK 8.5 million) in connection with the crackdown on the man.
The plaintiffs were several film and television companies. The film companies SF and Nordisk Film demanded almost SEK 3 million in damages, which were largely also awarded. PMD considered that the rights holders’ claim was well substantiated and, according to practice, was accepted by the court.
A number of television companies are also awarded damages according to their claims, and in total the damages are over SEK 16 million SEK.
Publicerad: 2024-05-17