A Sydney man has received an 18-month suspended jail term after illegally selling access to Foxtel services to thousands of people.

Haidar Majid Salam Al Baghdadi was convicted for operating a ring that used decoders and smartcards to allow other people unauthorised access to subscription television content. He ran the operation from his home in Sydney’s south west.

Foxtel CEO Peter Tonagh said the company hoped the sentence would send “a strong signal that this type of activity is illegal”.

“Foxtel takes intellectual property theft very seriously as it severely undermines the creative industry including every business and individual that works so hard to deliver us the movies, sport, drama and entertainment we love,” he declared.

The conviction and sentencing followed Foxtel’s ongoing antipiracy investigations in collaboration with the Australian Federal Police as well as digital platform security specialist Irdeto. “Partnerships like this play a crucial role in not only detecting these pirate networks, but ensuring that the perpetrators are brought to justice,” said Irdeto’s SVP of cybersecurity services Rory O’Connor.

“The seriousness of these crimes should not be underestimated and this result is further proof that piracy will not be tolerated,” O’Connor said.

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