Jonathan Edge, a 29-year-old Liverpool resident, is facing three years and four months for illegally loading and distributing jailbroken Amazon Fire Sticks. This is concurrent with a two-year and three-month sentence for viewing and accessing his supplied content. Jonathan plead guilty to three offenses under the Fraud Act.

Jonathan loaded streaming services such as Premier League football and exchanged the firestick for cash. The sticks would then give people access to the channels without them needing to pay any subscription fees.

He advertised his services on websites like Facebook, creating a digital trail that was easily discoverable. Even after receiving multiple warnings about his illegal activity, he kept selling the Fire Sticks online. This eventually acted as an aggregating factor in court, leading to his long sentence.

The court explains that it’s a blatant example of copyright abuse and that the consequences serve to highlight how serious these violations are.

“Many people see no harm in illegally streaming TV services but they are wrong, and this outcome should serve as a further warning how seriously such copyright theft continues to be taken,” said Detective Sergeant Steve Frame from the Merseyside Police.

In 2019, the UK reported that copyright abuse leads to over 9 billion pounds and the loss of more than 80,000 jobs per year. Since this report was published, the problem has gotten worse worldwide. Despite that, the general public doesn’t take the problem very seriously.

The prosecution team included experts from the Premier League, the Merseyside Police, the Federation Against Copyright Theft, and several other organizations interested in blocking copyright abuse.

The Premier League declared that it will continue fighting against illegal distributors.

“We will continue to pursue legal action against those supplying unauthorized access to Premier League football, regardless of the scale or mode of operation,” it said. “Ignoring warnings to stop only served to make the consequences worse for the individual.”

They’re not alone. International governments and companies have been ramping up their battle against copyright abuse, including charging distributors, taking down duplicate articles, and shutting down infringing websites.