Webinar AdHoc 01/2020 - European Intellectual Property Crime - Case Study: The Cardpro case

From September 2012 to October 2014, two Danish nationals engaged in an illicit operation involving the unauthorised manipulation of decoding devices and making television content available to others without permission from the rights holders. Defendant 1 JH provided the use of their internet connection and space for computer hardware whereas Defendant 2 MH — together with a third individual RH (case dealt with separately) — ran the operation and received the money from customers. The provided content included programmes from Viasat, YouSee and Canal Digital.

During the online seminar the following points will be covered:

• technical/IT expertise and digital investigative techniques applied to support the investigation
• the criminal modus operandi combining illegal card-sharing, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and on-demand services
• reliance upon two distinct approaches by the prosecution, corresponding to the specific nature of the respective legal violations associated with illegal card-sharing as distinguished from illegal IPTV and on-demand
• application of criminal sanctions to Defendant 2 MH in light of the serious nature and particularly aggravating circumstances of the violations
• avoidance by Defendant 1 JH of sanctions under the Criminal Code due to their lack of detailed knowledge about the illicit operation, not receiving any financial remuneration and the fact it could not be proved in court that Defendant 1 JH intended for the illicit service to have at least 100 subscribers