http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index.php/200904203659/gulf-toughening-up-tv-piracy-rules.html
Chris Forrester
20-04-2009
The situation where millions of Middle East-based set-top boxes are being used to view pirated signals or using grey-market imported cards looks like it is receiving a co-ordinated attack by the region’s governments. There are reports of direct anti-piracy action from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and elsewhere in the wealthy Gulf States.
Last week we reported on Saudi Arabia’s plans to confiscate Dreambox satellite receivers and similar products. Now the Qatari authorities are also taking action. Qatar’s Ministry of Business and Trade, its Customs Authority and service providers such as telco monopoly Q-Tel reportedly aim to explore how to curb, what are described as an “upsurge” in the illegal use of such devices.
“We couldn’t just do it on our own, without the involvement of other parties. Once the study is prepared then we will announce a way forward,” Qatar’s Ministry of Business and Trade’s Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Office head Abdulla Ahmed Qayed told local press.
According to the Dubai-based Anti-Piracy Alliance intellectual rights body, Qatar is seeking to ban the import of such receivers/decoders as the Dreambox and others through which close to 900 already-decrypted channels could be viewed, including “pornographic and anti-religious” material at a yearly cost of around QR1,200 ($300) says Qayed.
However, the local Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Office does not have a mandate to announce such a ban on the importing of such equipment. Illegal TV decoder boxes, which are used to decrypt pay TV channels, have been proliferating in Qatar – and the other nearby Gulf states – and continue to be easily accessible through back-street markets, along with third party firmware, software, and card-sharing programmes that are readily available via the Internet and from individual “racketeers”.
On April 12, Saudi authorities started a crackdown on illegal pay TV decoder boxes marking what they termed as “a major milestone in the kingdom’s intellectual property rights protection efforts”.
In a similar move, UAE authorities started confiscating India’s Dish TV and TataSky cards from people who brought them into the country in 2007. Indian DTH transmissions offer more than 100 Indian satellite TV channels which can be viewed by paying a mere Rs300 (around $6) per month. The satellite footprint for TataSky (INSAT-4A) and Dish TV (NSS-6) covers the Arabian Gulf, and allows the region’s huge number of Indian and Pakistani expat residents to receive decent signals.
Mohammed Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz Alshihhi, General Manager, UAE Ministry of Economy, said: “We have requested the various parties involved to tighten control over unauthorized Dish TV boxes that illegally enter through a neighbouring country and are sold in our local markets. I would like to thank the police and concerned national bodies for their cooperation in fighting piracy and taking measures against intellectual property rights (IPR) violators.”
“This has hurt our business,” a major distributor offering pay-TV options from Orbit, Pehla and other packages, told the Gulf News newspaper. “The past six months saw sales dropping by as much as 75%. Customers who ran out of [legitimate] quarterly or six-month package never came back. We know they have switched to these other means,” said the source.
Pay-TV basic packages start from around $16 a month and could go up to as much as $82 a month if sports or movie packages are included. For comparison’s sake, pirated access to TataSky and its rivals cost roughly $6 a month with three times the number of channels available.
One dealer selling ‘Dreambox’ units reportedly said the demand remains very strong with the shop still selling thousands of units every month. “Whether it is Dreambox, Max, Enox, or a Linksat, and smuggled from Bahrain, Saudi or the UAE, the demand remains extremely strong,” he said.
According to Qatar’s Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Office, the department has caught three shops selling illegal TV systems this year. The first shop had sold 1,200 annual subscriptions, while the second had 700 and the third, 500.
Scott Butler, CEO, Arabian Anti-piracy Alliance (AAA), talking about the UAE action, said: “We commend the MoE for acting swiftly and strongly against the proliferation of unauthorized Dish TV throughout the country. Legitimate businesses such as E-Vision are greatly hurt by this kind of piracy. There is a wrong public impression that it is acceptable to acquire pirated entertainment because movie producers and studios profit a lot from them. That is why we are telling people to consider this issue from a different perspective: what if it was their own creative works that were being stolen, how would they react? The right to protect intellectual property is not only logical but a legal right as well; illegal pay TV is simply an unacceptable violation of IPR.”
Chris Forrester
20-04-2009
The situation where millions of Middle East-based set-top boxes are being used to view pirated signals or using grey-market imported cards looks like it is receiving a co-ordinated attack by the region’s governments. There are reports of direct anti-piracy action from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and elsewhere in the wealthy Gulf States.
Last week we reported on Saudi Arabia’s plans to confiscate Dreambox satellite receivers and similar products. Now the Qatari authorities are also taking action. Qatar’s Ministry of Business and Trade, its Customs Authority and service providers such as telco monopoly Q-Tel reportedly aim to explore how to curb, what are described as an “upsurge” in the illegal use of such devices.
“We couldn’t just do it on our own, without the involvement of other parties. Once the study is prepared then we will announce a way forward,” Qatar’s Ministry of Business and Trade’s Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Office head Abdulla Ahmed Qayed told local press.
According to the Dubai-based Anti-Piracy Alliance intellectual rights body, Qatar is seeking to ban the import of such receivers/decoders as the Dreambox and others through which close to 900 already-decrypted channels could be viewed, including “pornographic and anti-religious” material at a yearly cost of around QR1,200 ($300) says Qayed.
However, the local Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Office does not have a mandate to announce such a ban on the importing of such equipment. Illegal TV decoder boxes, which are used to decrypt pay TV channels, have been proliferating in Qatar – and the other nearby Gulf states – and continue to be easily accessible through back-street markets, along with third party firmware, software, and card-sharing programmes that are readily available via the Internet and from individual “racketeers”.
On April 12, Saudi authorities started a crackdown on illegal pay TV decoder boxes marking what they termed as “a major milestone in the kingdom’s intellectual property rights protection efforts”.
In a similar move, UAE authorities started confiscating India’s Dish TV and TataSky cards from people who brought them into the country in 2007. Indian DTH transmissions offer more than 100 Indian satellite TV channels which can be viewed by paying a mere Rs300 (around $6) per month. The satellite footprint for TataSky (INSAT-4A) and Dish TV (NSS-6) covers the Arabian Gulf, and allows the region’s huge number of Indian and Pakistani expat residents to receive decent signals.
Mohammed Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz Alshihhi, General Manager, UAE Ministry of Economy, said: “We have requested the various parties involved to tighten control over unauthorized Dish TV boxes that illegally enter through a neighbouring country and are sold in our local markets. I would like to thank the police and concerned national bodies for their cooperation in fighting piracy and taking measures against intellectual property rights (IPR) violators.”
“This has hurt our business,” a major distributor offering pay-TV options from Orbit, Pehla and other packages, told the Gulf News newspaper. “The past six months saw sales dropping by as much as 75%. Customers who ran out of [legitimate] quarterly or six-month package never came back. We know they have switched to these other means,” said the source.
Pay-TV basic packages start from around $16 a month and could go up to as much as $82 a month if sports or movie packages are included. For comparison’s sake, pirated access to TataSky and its rivals cost roughly $6 a month with three times the number of channels available.
One dealer selling ‘Dreambox’ units reportedly said the demand remains very strong with the shop still selling thousands of units every month. “Whether it is Dreambox, Max, Enox, or a Linksat, and smuggled from Bahrain, Saudi or the UAE, the demand remains extremely strong,” he said.
According to Qatar’s Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Office, the department has caught three shops selling illegal TV systems this year. The first shop had sold 1,200 annual subscriptions, while the second had 700 and the third, 500.
Scott Butler, CEO, Arabian Anti-piracy Alliance (AAA), talking about the UAE action, said: “We commend the MoE for acting swiftly and strongly against the proliferation of unauthorized Dish TV throughout the country. Legitimate businesses such as E-Vision are greatly hurt by this kind of piracy. There is a wrong public impression that it is acceptable to acquire pirated entertainment because movie producers and studios profit a lot from them. That is why we are telling people to consider this issue from a different perspective: what if it was their own creative works that were being stolen, how would they react? The right to protect intellectual property is not only logical but a legal right as well; illegal pay TV is simply an unacceptable violation of IPR.”