Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1310107
3 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 18 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS B'XOGĦLI SALVAJT ĦAJJA ISSIEĦEB FIL-KORP TAL-PULIZIJA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The common consensus seems to be that, despite pos- sible temporary interruption to some servers, other avenues of streaming will replace those targeted by recent police ac- tion. The police have confirmed that while an IPTV box or An- droid box is in itself not an "il- licit device", the configuration of hardware to access protect- ed content is illegal. "What renders such devic- es illicit is the installation and configuration of the devices in a way that they are able to access protected services," a spokesperson for the corps said. MaltaToday reached out to the police following raids last week across Europe, including Malta, in an exercise triggered by Italy in a bid to clamp down on illegal streaming of content, including Serie A football. The European Union's Agen- cy for Criminal Justice Coop- eration (Eurojust) coordinat- ed the action day, codenamed 'Operation Perfect Storm', on the behest of Italy's Guardia di Finanza through a European Investigation Order (EIO). Such operations are actioned after an exhaustive assessment of the services being provided, the manner in which these ser- vices are being provided and the associated money flows, the police said. In Malta, raids were coordi- nated by the Financial Crimes Investigations Department (FCID) and the Cybercrime Unit of the Police Force. No arrests were made but searches carried out in Qormi and St Paul's Bay in properties owned by one individual, yield- ed the confiscation of around 150 devices, together with ap- proximately 48 Smart Satellite Cards, two smartphones and around €13,000 in cash. Equipment found was being used for the diffusion of IPTV Signal. Despite the illicit methods with which IPTV services are provided, the regular adver- tising of the streaming device is common on Maltese social media channels and even on television. One seller who advertises IP- TV on Facebook's marketplace told MaltaToday that he was not concerned about the recent action since he was only a re- seller of the boxes and his main source of income did not come from the streaming devices. Another seller insisted he was not doing anything illegal, as he only sold the set-top box with the software already installed and had nothing to do with the software. "I'm not really worried about it, I only provide the IPTV box not the software," he said. A recent survey by the Malta Communications Authority re- vealed that 28% of respondents owned an IPTV or Android box, down by 4% when com- pared to 2017. On the other hand, those with a pay-tv subscription also have IPTV. Nine out of ten people with an IPTV box pointed out that the better channel line-up made IPTV better than a standard TV subscription. And one out of 10 people with a standard pay-tv subscription are looking to acquire an IPTV box. 28% of Maltese households have IPTV service Operation Perfect Storm involved police action in 19 European countries, including Malta, and resulted in 5,500 streaming sites being shut down and 23 persons being investigated