Matrix Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 Two men from the UK have been handed lengthy jail sentences for selling piracy-configured set-top devices. Glenn Burrows and Darren Wicks were behind the now-defunct Oobersticks operation which sold thousands of Kodi-powered devices through two UK companies. Burrows was jailed for 22 months while Wicks was sentenced to 20 months, suspended for two years. With the rise of programmable set-top boxes, companies have sprung up all over the UK to fulfil demand, with millions of devices now in the hands of the public. Directed by Norfolk man Glenn Burrows, Ooberstick Ltd was incorporated in February 2016 and was set up to sell relatively expensive devices containing a custom build of Kodi and various addons. TF was previously informed these boxes were shipped out only partly configured, with customers required to complete the final install themselves. A second company, Oober Media Ltd, was incorporated by Burrows during October 2016. Together with Oobersticks, the businesses amassed thousands of customers. However, on Tuesday 13 December 2016, Burrows and business associate Darren Wicks of Wiltshire were arrested. A source who requested anonymity told TF that around six officers and a Sky representative were present during the 7:20am raid. Both men were released on police bail with Burrows informing TF that he believed his business was legal. “I was running a successful business which was both VAT registered in the U.K. and with Worldpay as my payment merchant. For me to get both of those, those parties have to be sure that what I was doing was legal,” he said. Several months later, however, the position changed. On September 7, 2017, at Norwich Crown Court, Burrows pleaded guilty to intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offense, along with a money laundering offense. On May 17, 2018, at the same court, Darren Wicks pleaded guilty to intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offense. Last Friday, both appeared before Norwich Crown Court for sentencing.. 33-year-old Burrows (right) was sentenced to 22 months in prison on two counts to run concurrently. He was also made subject to a Serious Crime Prevention Order which prevents him from selling products online for five years. He’s now required to notify police of his online usernames and identities. Wicks, 45, of Chippenham in Wiltshire, was sentenced to 20 months in prison, suspended for two years. He must also carry out 250 hours of unpaid work. “I hope these sentences send a clear message that the use of illicit streaming devices to watch content without the copyright owner’s permission is illegal,” says Detective Sergeant Samantha Shevlin of the Norfolk and Suffolk Police Cyber Crime Unit. “The sale of these boxes has a huge effect on the content owners, broadcasters and the wider public who will end up paying the price for others’ dishonesty. The message really is that simple – devices like this or using one at home to watch content you normally would pay for is breaking the law.” A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing for Burrows will take place in due course. In the meantime, both of his companies have been resigned to history, with Ooberstick Ltd having been dissolved during January 2018 and Oober Media Ltd shut down in March 2018. Neither company ever filed any accounts. source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted July 9, 2018 Share Posted July 9, 2018 Kodi is Open Source software witch is 100 percent free so is most all addons , most likely the noobs that bought them turned them in when there addons stop working because the addon dev switch repos or quit making addons .. if you don't know how to load kodi yourself or have a friend or family keep it working it want stay working very long, It would take and idiot to buy a loaded box it's better to buy a legal box and load you're own. It's much cheaper, If Sky was the one who went after them they must of been pushing boxes with addons with free iptv in them.. because if iptv was subscription they would not come loaded in a box you would have to pay for it separate and ether they would have a addon are you need to load the m3u in a open source addon . Edit: I done a little research on them back when they were selling and that exactly what they were doing they were selling fire sticks for 4 times the price witch they had a sports streams addon were they stole the streams from open source addons sources like Evolve addon witch is dead for a long time.. Quote [–]FirestickJunkie 1 point 2 years ago £100 for a fire stick that can be bought for £25 when signing up for a trial of prime. So you are charging 4 times the price because you added kodi which is FREE and also addons that are FREE. What a rip off They was asking to get busted. The guys that make the addons always get off with a warning only, people who make money on kodi that they are hard on. The problem with free iptv is they all copy each others sources if a source go down then many addons will be down they call it forking but really it's just cloning the same addon with different artwork . Good IPTV dont come in a build you just pay once for. Because IPTV is a legit and blackmarket business itself it just depends who how much you willing to pay for IPTV its all subscription. Reddit have subs for each kind of IPTV but pirates caught on they could sell the streams on the blackmarket. Most free IPTV addons the streams are stole from free TV Android apks any other free streams never last very long 12 to 24 hours so you a need a addon that update daily for non android streams . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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