Pssst… Want to Snitch on Sellers of Pirate Streaming Services?

Do you know someone who sells dodgy streaming boxes or pirate IPTV streams? In Ireland, anti-piracy group FACT in partnership with Crimestoppers would like you to 'report' this activity. These 'snitch' initiatives are not widely embraced by the public but with a six-week social media push, the campaign aims to identity new enforcement targets.

Those who follow mainstream tabloid media in the UK and Ireland should be familiar with online streaming piracy by now; whether they like it or not.

The harms and threats of illicit streaming devices or using the preferred term in Ireland, dodgy boxes, have been discussed at length in hundreds of news articles. Additional reports on prison sentences for resellers of these services, make clear that these are serious offenses.

Intriguingly, despite all the attention, millions of people continue to use these ‘cheap’ pirate options. This logically means that there are plenty of active sellers who are still willing to take the risk.

Report Streaming Piracy Campaign

To address the ongoing problem, anti-piracy group FACT has teamed up with the Crimestoppers charity to launch a new social media campaign. Instead of simply warning the public, it’s now calling on people to “speak up” and report piracy peddlers 100% anonymously.

“Running over six weeks on Facebook and Instagram, the campaign aims to gather intelligence on individuals or groups involved in advertising or selling illegal streaming subscriptions, modified firesticks or so called ‘dodgy boxes’,” the groups announce in a press release.

“Digital piracy is a serious crime, often run by organized criminal groups. Information provided anonymously to Crimestoppers will be thoroughly investigated by FACT and could lead to further actions, including prosecution,” they add.

These types of ‘report piracy’ initiatives aren’t new. Crimestoppers has worked on similar campaigns with FACT in the past, with Crimestoppers’ accounts revealing that Sky paid the bills. Together with rightsholders and the UK Government, all three are involved in the BeStreamWise campaign as well, which also asks the public to ‘report a pirate.’

In other industries ‘piracy snitching’ is common too. Best known are the Software Alliance (BSA) initiatives, where people were offered hard cash in return for useful piracy intelligence. That could be handy to pay off credit card debt or to book ski trip, social media ads suggested.

No Bounty

The BSA’s bounty program was very successful according to an insider, who previously said that hundreds of people shared information. This reportedly helped to lower piracy rates at the corporate level.

The new piracy streaming campaign run by FACT and Crimestoppers doesn’t offer any hard cash. Instead, the groups are appealing for people to “do the right thing.” Pirate streaming operations are run by criminals, they suggest, and therefore pose a security threat to the public.

“This campaign is an important step in our ongoing efforts to combat illegal streaming in Ireland. By working with Crimestoppers, we aim to empower communities to act against digital piracy and protect themselves from the associated risks,” FACT CEO Kieron Sharp notes.

The potential harm to rightsholders’ profits remains largely unmentioned. Instead, a Crimestoppers spokesperson mostly focuses on the risk to consumers.

“The dangers to the family home are real for those who take the risk of using these criminal services. We should all pay our way fairly. Speak up if you know about the criminals involved. You’ll be helping to protect people from putting themselves in danger.”
Matter of perspective

Since the campaign exists to serve business interests, it makes sense that the focus is on consumer risks rather than corporate losses. Whether the public will be compelled to serve as informants has yet to be seen.

Most people are likely to agree that crime should be stopped but those who know about pirate streaming services may have a different perspective, as they are part of the problem.

This isn’t merely an informed guess. It’s one of the conclusions of a survey conducted by the UK Intellectual Property Office last year. It found that people were reluctant to report piracy for three main reasons.

A. They would not personally benefit from reporting someone.

B. It would seem hypocritical if they used unofficial sources themselves, or there could be a danger of vindictive behavior against them.

C. The police have higher priorities to be dealing with than IP crime.

Of course, these reasons don’t apply to all people and the campaign may ultimately pay off. After all, this isn’t the first time that the public has been asked to help and, if other attempts yielded no results, it would be pointless to try again.

Those who do plan to share information are assured that they can do so 100% anonymously. Their IP-addresses and locations won’t be recorded so they won’t have to fear retribution from angry pirates or their customers.