Our Timeline

In 1988, the UK introduced the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act, replacing the 1956 Copyright Act. This landmark amendment consolidated intellectual property laws and provided legal protection for creative works and inventions. The Act empowered authorities to prosecute copyright infringers, safeguarding the efforts of filmmakers and content creators. Over time, it has been modified to address technological advancements and international copyright agreements, fortifying the legal framework for film and television industries, and ensuring the protection of intellectual property.

Norfolk businessman, Allen Watts was sentenced to over three years in prison for orchestrating Europe’s largest pirate video operation. He flooded the market with over 500,000 counterfeit copies of popular films like Saving Private Ryan, The Matrix, and Gladiator, defrauding the film industry of millions of pounds. The scheme came to light as blockbuster sales dropped and unusually low prices emerged. FACT’s investigation led to a police raid that revealed a massive duplicating facility and blank cassettes, and major retailers, including WH Smith and HMV, had stocked films that Watts had sold to an unsuspecting legitimate distribution company.

Kieron Sharp joined FACT as Director General in November 2006, bringing with him a strong law enforcement background following a distinguished 30-year career with the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police. During his policing career, he held several key positions, including Detective Chief Superintendent in charge of Specialist Crime Operations in the City. He also served a four-year secondment to Interpol as Head of the Economic Crime Department and was a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

FACT and the charity CrimeStoppers announced a partnership that made Crimestoppers the anonymous primary reporting resource for film piracy in the UK. This allowed members of the public to report piracy easily and anonymously 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The British Video Association (BVA) award acknowledged FACT’s achievements well ahead of its anticipated two-year goal to demonstrate the effectiveness of increased investment in physical and on-line enforcement.

In a landmark case, a 22-year-old graduate in Performing Arts from Thames Valley University who was found guilty of recording three films in a cinema (The Crazies, Alice in Wonderland and Green Zone) and then uploading them to the internet. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment, the first conviction of its kind in the UK.

Newzbin was a popular website that allowed people to access binary files posted on a network called ‘Usenet’. The site caused controversy over its stance on copyright material and was the first time an ISP (BT) had been ordered, under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, to block its customers’ access to a website. The Newzbin case was a key moment for the regulation of the Internet and the battle against piracy.

FACT achieved a significant milestone when Anton Vickerman, the operator behind surfthechannel.com was found guilty by a jury on two counts of conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to four years imprisonment on each charge. He was the first British man to be jailed in the UK for a website providing links to illegal film and TV show. The case (R v Scopelight) became an essential reference point for criminal prosecutions in the UK.

FACT welcomed the creation of the Police Intellectual Property Crime unit aimed at targeting intellectual property crime. The unit was dedicated to tackling online piracy and other forms of intellectual property crime such as counterfeit goods. It was the first unit of its kind in the world, ensuring that the UK stayed at the forefront of intellectual property enforcement.

This landmark sentencing marked the first UK criminal prosecution of an online ‘release group.’ Five men, members of interrelated movie release groups like RemixHD, and Hope/Resistance, received sentences totalling over 17 years for releasing thousands of movies on the internet. The investigation, spanning three years, aimed to track these individuals who put over £52m of Hollywood revenues at risk. FACT, in its most aggressive private prosecution to date, had evidence of more than 9,000 movie releases between March 2010 and January 2014.

Using the expertise and long-standing experience from FACT’s investigation services, FACT Due Diligence was set up to provide due diligence services for governments, multi-national corporations, small to medium-sized businesses, and private high-net-worth individuals.

Three men were jailed for a total of 10 years and seven months for selling fake DVDs following a successful investigation by FACT and Suffolk Trading Standards. The three men managed the sophisticated counterfeit DVD business over a two-and-a-half-year period, selling over 31,000 DVDs, worth more than £500,000. The operation involved the use of fake identities and paperwork, as well as money laundering practices.

The ‘Dreambox’ case was a groundbreaking moment in piracy law, resulting in a collective prison sentence of 17 years for the operators of a pirate streaming organisation. After a four-week trial at Warwick Crown Court, the jury found the trio guilty of conspiracy to defraud by illicitly providing over 1,000 establishments and homes across England and Wales with unauthorised access to Premier League football, amassing over £5 million in earnings. The decade-long operation involved engaging third parties to create illegal broadcast streams, fraudulently obtaining premium content from global broadcasters for unauthorised pay-TV viewing.

Stephen Millington, a software developer, received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for creating a software package that allowed illegal access to BT Sport, SKY, Netflix, and other subscription television content. Distributed to thousands of users, the software enabled unauthorised access to premium TV and film content, potentially causing the legitimate broadcast industry millions of pounds in losses annually.

FACT’s Excellence Awards recognise the exceptional efforts of police and other law enforcement individuals across the UK for their support in the fight against piracy. The awards ceremony, held on April 19 in Birmingham, honoured a total of 19 recipients from eight police services who were involved in the successful prosecutions of some of the largest illegal streaming operations in the UK over the past few years.

In the world’s largest-ever prosecution of an illegal streaming network, three pirate streaming organisations were handed sentences of over 30 years in jail. Five individuals were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, and contempt of court at Chesterfield Justice Centre. Operating under names like Flawless, Shared VPS, and Optimal, these fraudulent enterprises earned over £7 million in just five years. Serving more than 50,000 customers, resellers, and employing 30 people, including one undercover in an anti-piracy company, they provided illegal access to Premier League matches, global channels, and numerous films and TV shows. The ‘Mastermind’, Mark Gould, received an 11-year prison sentence.