A London-based police operation set up to tackle the growing problem of copyright infringement across the UK has received a £3.2 million funding injection to help upscale its operations.
The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has received approximately £5.56 million in public funding since it was first set up in 2013, and continues to play an increasingly important role in cracking down on copyright infringement in the UK.
The organisation has been working in conjunction with a number of other prominent companies, including copyright body FACT and broadcasters such as Sky and Virgin Media.
PIPCU has also successfully intervened to clamp down on the number of Britons illegally streaming or watching football matches in collaboration with the Premier League.
Its latest slice of funding will reportedly pay for ongoing operations between July this year and June 2019, assisting PIPCU in its crackdown on the likes of torrent and streaming websites which enable users to unlawfully access or download pirated material using the internet.
In recent months, PIPCU has been tackling the ubiquitous problem of ‘fully-loaded’ Kodi set-top TV boxes, which can be easily manipulated by hackers to enable viewers to access pirated content.
It is thought that the £3.2 million funding injection – which was pumped into PIPCU earlier this month – will help to strengthen PIPCU’s ongoing investigations into such matters, assisting the organisation in shutting down streaming services and prosecuting enablers of such services.