International
Nov 28, 2011 Under-declaration a Worldwide Problem
Underdeclaration of cable TV subscriptions is a major problem in some Asian markets, and also in other regions. One Latin American government, concerned about losing tax revenues from the cable-TV industry, has proposed revoking the operating licenses of cable-TV operators who underdeclare. See the story here:
Oct 14, 2011 US Court Punishes Piracy Consumer Interested members can track this, and other piracy actions in North America, on the website www.satscams.com, which is operated by Nagrastar, a joint venture of CASBAA member companies Nagravision and Echostar. June 14, 2011 May 31, 2011 February 7, 2011 January 17, 2011 December 13, 2010 November 18, 2010 June 22, 2010 January 11, 2010 November 6, 2009 October 15, 2009 September 11, 2009 August 29, 2009 July 27, 2009 May 31, 2009 Oct 31, 2008 Full Article Nov 28, 2007
A US Court has entered an injunction against a consumer of pirated programming, and fined him US$10,000 in statutory damages. Michael Blair was hit with the judgment by a Federal court in Austin, Texas after the court found he “received copyrighted, subscription-based DISH Network satellite television programming without authorization and without payment to DISH Network.” Blair bought a subscription from a pirate “internet key sharing” service, with servers in Canada, that sent him decryption control words for Dish Network’s programming. A summary of the case can be downloaded here.
Content Coalition Urges Passage of US Bill Targeting “Rogue Sites”
CASBAA and other members of the Coalition Against Online Video Piracy wrote to leaders of the US Senate Judiciary Committee urging passage of the “Protect IP” Act of 2011”. That bill would aim to penalize international piracy websites by forcing their removal from US domain name servers, advertising servers and search engines. It has garnered a wide range of bipartisan support from legislators concerned about sites pushing everything from pirate movies to fake designer shoes. The letter can be seen here.
Combating Online Piracy of Sports Broadcasts
In a recent article, an India-based IP expert provides a succinct analysis of challenges facing broadcasters, as online piracy gets better, faster and more widespread. Says the author, “stakeholders, governments and policy makers in countries that have an established respect for intellectual property are increasingly sensitised to the unique threats posed by such professionally managed pirate operations.” Noting new enforcement and legislative pushes taking place in the USA, the author observes that “a wide range of third parties (such as CDNs, ISPs and domain registries) are involved behind the scenes at each stage of the (piracy) process, many of them based in countries with more progressive intellectual property laws,” and this may provide levers for future actions. Read the entire article here.
Westin Hotel hit with lawsuit for allegedly providing HBO, ESPN without a contract
Westin Hotel is embroiled in a suit over allegedly providing channels such as HBO and ESPN to guests without having obtained the necessary authorization. The Taiwanese agent for these channels claims that Westin never signed a contract with it to broadcast the networks publicly. But the hotel claims that it is contracted to an alternate agent and that it's the other agent that needs to take responsibility. See full article here.
UAE Crackdown on Indian Overspill Boxes
With the Cricket World Cup in the offing, authorities in the United Arab Emirates have threatened fines against individuals using smuggled set-top-boxes and smartcards to view Indian DTH services. The authorities are working with local pay-TV distributor Arab Digital Distribution on an enforcement campaign, apparently grounded in copyright law. (ADD is the authorized distributor in the UAE of a number of Indian pay-TV channels through its Pehla bouquet of Asian programming.) See the full article here.
Middle East Dreamboxes Get Hammered:
Dubai-based satellite DTH provider Orbit Showtime Network (OSN) announced that it will switch to a new encryption system on December 19. Switchoff of its existing signal is expected to render useless several hundred thousand “Dreamboxes” in the Middle East which have been using “control word sharing” to allow unscrupulous consumers to view OSN’s programs without paying. Most of these Middle Eastern circumvention boxes have been exported from Asian STB producers in China and Korea.
See this article from a Bahraini publication. 
Dreambox_article.pdf
Korean Set-Top Box Manufacturer Hit By Huge Piracy Fine:
A U.S. Court has found Korean Firm Global Technologies guilty of willful violations of copyright and communications laws for distributing set-top boxes aimed at circumventing pay-TV broadcaster Dish TV’s security system. The California court levied a huge fine in the case, which Global Technologies chose not to contest: US$626.2 million dollars (which the judge considered conservative, in light of the huge number of “Pansat” branded circumvention boxes involved in the case -- more than 250,000). Prospects that the fine will ever be paid are unclear. In a related case last April, U.S. firm Panarex agreed to a $121 million settlement. View a press report here.
Selectable Output Control
Selectable Output Control (SOC) has recently been authorized by the FCC for use in the USA. This paper by Verimatrix explains what SOC is, how it prevents piracy of high-value movie content, and how it can be complemented by using other technologies.
US Court Levies Heaviest TV Piracy Fine
Broadcasting & Cable - A US court has handed down a $51 million judgement against a seller of piracy/circumvention services. The Florida businessman ran an online business marketing CA circumvention software that allowed unpaid access to Dish Network programming. The court awarded the minimum statutory damages of $200 per act of circumvention, but with more than a quarter million downloads recorded, the damages hit record levels. See the full article here.
Cost of Piracy 2009
The annual CASBAA pay-TV piracy survey of 15 Asia Pacific markets conducted in association with Standard Chartered Bank.
Bahrain closes pirate webserver
A “control word sharing” webserver in Bahrain serving many thousands of customers through so-called “Dreambox” type products was ordered closed by the Bahraini telecom regulator. Such boxes allow individuals who pay a monthly fee to the server owner to bypass pay-TV conditional access systems. Read the news report here.
Full Article
Piracy syndicates undercut US pay-TV Operator
US satellite TV platform Dish TV has been fighting major legal actions against piracy syndicates selling and servicing so-called “FTA” satellite receivers which can be easily turned into piracy boxes. Most of the boxes, notes one recent press article, are imported from China and Korea. The article claims Dish is losing hundreds of millions of dollars annually to piracy. Read the full text here.
Full Article
Liverpudlian jailed for selling circumvention box in UK “first”
Liverpool Echo.co.uk - A Liverpool man was sentenced to four months in jail for selling set-top-boxes that used the Internet to share control words and defeat a pay-TV conditional access system. Such boxes are now a growing threat to the pay-TV industry worldwide. See full text here.
No. American Satellite TV Pirates Closed Down
DISH Network - US and Canadian satellite TV providers Dish TV and Bell Express have been taking legal action against a range of sellers of equipment and services used to pirate their signals. Most recently, a Canadian court ordered two leading piracy forum websites closed down. See full information here.
Full Article
Jun 9, 2009
Satellite piracy sends strong signals to India
Business Standard - Deepak Chaurasia (name changed) is watching the latest Hindi movie beamed by his cable operator. Glued to the local cable channel at home, he’s an unwitting partner in crime. Though he doesn’t know it, the movie has been routed from a pay television (TV) channel without authorisation from the original broadcaster.
Full Article
Japanese duo arrested for webcasts
Variety - Tokyo - The prexy and employee of a company that webcasts TV shows to Japanese expats abroad have been taken into custody by Tokyo police for alleged copyright violations.
Full Article
Mar 13, 2009
Hong Kong Court orders release of identity of pirate pay-TV software downloaders
A Hong Kong court, acting on application from North American pay-TV providers Echostar and Bell Express Vue, ordered a website owner in Hong Kong to divulge personal information about users who had downloaded circumvention software for pay-TV systems. Read the full judgement here.
Full Article
Jan 20, 2009
Premiere defeats P2P threat
Rapidtvnews.com - German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere has emerged the victor in a long-time juridical battle against the developer of controversial P2P software Cybersky-TV. Germany’s Federal Supreme Court has rejected the appeal by Cybersky-TV developer Guido Ciburski against the prohibition of the software by the Superior Court of Hamburg.
Cost of piracy 2008
CASBAA announced new data for Asia’s pay-TV market, showing 71 million digital pay-TV households out of 300 million pay-TV subscriptions across Asia.
Nov 15, 2008
Dish goes after signal pirates
Rocky Mountain News - Dish Network Corp. is going after satellite TV pirates and retail fraud to stem a problem that has grown since early 2007.
MPA and MDA launch Centre for Content Protection
Variety Asia Online - The Motion Picture Assn. and Singapore's Media Development Authority will bow the Center for Content Protection covering the Asia-Pacific region.
Full Article
Nov 2, 2007
Cost of piracy 2007
Standard Chartered Bank and CASBAA jointly present findings on impacts of piracy the Asia-Pacific cable and satellite industry (2007).
Full Article
Oct 25, 2007
US plans global anti-piracy treaty
Variety Asia Online - The US and some of its major trading partners have a treaty in the works to improve global antipiracy efforts. However, thee partners do not include China and Russia.
Full Article
Oct 22, 2007
Media giant principals to combat piracy
advanced-television.com - Digital media heavyweights Viacom, Walt Disney, Microsoft, Fox, MySpace and NBC Universal have issued a set of guidelines on copyright protection, using technology to purge pirated content circulating online.
Full Article
Oct 8, 2007
Scottish pub banned from using foreign satellite
thepublican.com - The FA Premier League has hailed a ruling in which a Scottish judge ordered a pub to stop showing English Premier League matches through a foreign decoder box.
Full Article
Oct 5, 2007
NBC: get tough on piracy
advanced-television.com - Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal, said piracy of copyright movies, music and other goods is "getting worse, not better" and urged the Justice Department to step up enforcement.
Full Article
Oct 1, 2007
MPAA files lawsuits against two sites for copyright infringement
indiantelevision.com - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), on behalf of the major Hollywood movie studios, has filed lawsuits in federal court in Los Angeles against two websites that allegedly facilitate copyright infringement on the Internet.
Full Article
