A court in Greece has handed down one of the most punishing sentences on record to a man who resold pirate IPTV subscriptions. The Court of Thessaloniki heard that the local man sold subscriptions to thousands of customers, generating millions of euros. After the court sent him to prison for eight years, attention now turns to a seized customer database. The authorities are said to be preparing cases against customers, some of whom have already been arrested.
Like many of its European counterparts, Greece has a pirate site blocking program that receives regular updates through an administrative process.
The first domains blocked by Greek ISPs (xrysoi.online, xrysoi.se and xrysoi.eu) were restricted in 2018 and the most recent (antenasports.ru, sporthd.me) were blocked this August, to a total of 655 domains in roughly six years. Greece also regularly blocks IP addresses, mostly to restrict access to pirate IPTV services, especially those providing access to live football.
The most recent order dated September 3, 2024, requested blocking of just five IP addresses and from data made available as part of the country’s administrative program, just 111 IP addresses are currently blocked overall.