In his 32 years as a cop, John McGowan "oversaw investigations into murders, drug deals and terrorism," according to Rodrigo Orihuela of BLOOMBERG. These days, "most of his sleuthing involves" watching football in pubs and hotels. McGowan began working for a company that hunts for unauthorized broadcasts of football games and other sports events -- "a job that’s gotten more complex lately with growing sales of set-top boxes that can be hooked directly to televisions to show pirated games and films." McGowan, director of operations for Glasgow ID Inquiries, which does investigations for the Premier League, said, "There’s a lot of old-style detective work. Walking around, going into pubs to see what they’re showing, paying attention." Researcher Irdeto USA Inc. revealed that sales of the devices, which can cost as little as $30 for a box plus a year of programming, "have surged in recent months." The company said that "the number of websites selling them has more than doubled since November, to almost 450, and that new sites are popping up daily." Irdeto estimates that more than 2.4 million illegal boxes "are in use worldwide." The growth "threatens revenues of football leagues and of broadcasters such as Sky Plc and BT Group Plc." In recent years, police and courts in dozens of countries "have shut down websites that rebroadcast live programming without permission -- the Premier League says it blocked 45,000 sites worldwide last season -- but the pirates often resurface with different names." People who buy the boxes for home viewing "face some legal risks," though they are small, according to Samuel Parra, a Spanish attorney who specializes in cyber law. Parra: "It’s very difficult to go after the user, but the law is being worked on in Spain and other parts of Europe to make it easier" (BLOOMBERG, 5/8).
