“Welcome everyone to the best free streaming site”, boasted the home page of one of their 30 websites illegally broadcasting sports matches from pay channels. Three men aged 43 to 57 were sentenced on Wednesday March 10 to jointly pay more than 7 million euros in damages to Canal +, BeIN Sports and RMC Sport by the Rennes criminal court. Two other defendants, aged 49 and 44, were also ordered to pay damages relating to part of this sum.
The five men had already been convicted in criminal proceedings in June, to sentences ranging from 5,000 euros in suspended fine to twelve months in prison, six of which were suspended.
” Robin Hood “
During the hearing on civil interests in January, the television channels had claimed more than 91 million euros in material and moral damage. The court set the material and moral damage of Canal + at 2.75 million euros, that of BeIN Sports at 3.94 million euros and that of Sportscotv and MCS, publishers of RMC Sport, at more than 600,000. euros.
“It is a satisfactory decision in the sense that the damages are extremely reduced compared to the sums requested. However, we remain on extremely high sentences ”, reacted Me Katell Plançon, lawyer for Franck C., 49, an employee of Roubaix (North), who said he had been taken for a “Simpleton” in that case. “Whether we are at one, two, three or four million, that does not change much, because these are people who do not have the means to repay”added Me Hélène Laudic-Baron, who clarified that he was not “Not impossible” that she appeal.
Among the men sentenced are in particular a Breton computer scientist and an invalid Girondin, Jean-Eric M., 57, who said he had acted “In the Robin Hood spirit”.
260,000 euros seized
The creator of the sites, Olivier O., 47, was a former seller of photocopiers living near Rennes. In June, the daily West France specified that nearly 260,000 euros were seized by the investigators – a sum divided between the real estate and the bank accounts of Olivier O. The prosecutor, during a hearing held on March 5, had also mentioned “The concealment of other funds, in particular through offshore accounts”.
The five men were broadcasting on “A galaxy of sites”, since at least 2014 and until 2018, sporting events (football, basketball, rugby, etc.) reserved for subscribers of pay channels. The Canal Plus channel was thus broadcast free of charge 24 hours a day. Thanks to special software, the defendants captured the video stream of their Canal Plus, BeIN Sports or RMC Sports subscription, and then retransmit it to a server. For foreign channels, links to illegal content sites were put online, according to the elements of the investigation cited at the hearing.
Visitors to the sites were then “Bombed” of advertisements, which would have brought in nearly 230,000 euros, paid by 50 advertising agencies between 2014 and 2018. The nine most frequented sites attracted more than 7.5 million unique visitors from 2014 to 2017, according to an estimate cited in l criminal hearing in March 2020.
