E sccr/20/2 Rev Original: English date : May 10, 2010 Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights Twentieth Session Geneva, June 21 to 24, 2010
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- Africa
- Middle East
- ACCESS BARRIERS AND CAUSES OF PIRACY
- Consumer and industry barriers
Europe14 All the different types of unauthorized signal access are witnessed in some form or the other in the more developed regions of Europe. Analogue cable signal theft has become relatively low due to digitization of networks, relatively cheap access prices, or provision of services as part of housing agreement/apartment rent. Enactment of the EU directive on CA circumvention (CAD) in several European nations has resulted in some success in curbing hardware based unauthorized signal access. In several European countries it is now illegal to sell, advertise or own CA circumvention devices. 15 With increasing broadband penetration, pay-TV pirates have now shifted their focus online. P2P protocol BitTorrent is popular. Sites offering free browser based access to content have also become increasingly popular in Europe. Increases in broadband speeds combined with digitization of content have resulted in in-browser accessibility of near-broadcast quality content – further encouraging consumers to shift their viewing to online sources. 16 Hardware based unauthorized access remains the key form of broadcast signal piracy in CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) countries like Poland, Czech Republic, and while in Russia and Ukraine, TV distribution is mainly via analogue cable - facilitating signal theft. Online piracy has started to become a key concern in these countries due to growing broadband penetration and lax regulations and enforcement governing online piracy.
18 Hardware based and illegal broadcasting of pay TV signals are the most common form of unauthorized access of broadcast signals. Pay TV operators Multichoice and Orbit/Showtime estimate that the number of illegal subscribers viewing their services could be several times higher than the legal ones. In a bid to clamp down on pirate viewers, MENA pay-TV operator ART has recently begun to swap out its CA systems, in time for the 2010 football World Cup. 19 A unique form of unauthorized pay TV access in Africa is public airing of content in ‘viewing centres’. Due to the expensive nature of pay TV, illegal viewing centres that air big ticket sports events like the English Premier League football have become increasingly prevalent. Online piracy is yet to become a major threat due to the relatively low levels of broadband penetration.
21 Unauthorized redistribution of content has historically been a key form of signal piracy, but sustained raids against TV operators has seen these levels drop in recent years. Industry sources estimate that this now accounts for just 1-2 per cent of total unauthorized access and piracy. Small pockets of illegal cable TV operations still exist in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s ‘compounds’ – housing complexes where mainly expatriates reside – are key areas where illegal pay TV services operate. Illegal distribution of signals is also common in Lebanon, where in 2007, 600-800 illegal operators were estimated to be operating services. 22 Several websites catering exclusively to the Middle East offering movies and TV shows for download have surfaced in recent years. Some of these are financed through the sale of subscriptions for access to pay TV content. Broadband penetration levels are still low in the Middle East, but are increasing. The Middle East countries’ Islamic law has helped fight online piracy, as websites that offer pirated content are blocked by the authorities if they are shown to be hosting un-Islamic content such as pornography. However, blocking non-offending pirated content such as music requires the rights holder to prove copyright infringement, which is often a long drawn-out process.
25 Cost of access to broadcast services remains one the most cited reasons for unauthorized access to broadcast signal/content piracy on an individual level in almost all markets surveyed for this report. Monthly access fees to basic pay services which usually include FTA channels and a few low tier pay services – ranged from 0.7 25 per cent of monthly per capita GDP, while top level subscription packages which include movies and sport ranged from 2-100 per cent. Although access fees cannot be cited as the sole reason for unauthorized access of broadcast signals, markets where top level access fees as a proportion of monthly per capita GDP were high, or where income inequality is high, tend to witness higher levels of unauthorized access and piracy. Directory: edocs -> mdocs -> copyright copyright -> World intellectual property organization copyright -> E sccr/30/5 original: English date: June 2, 2015 Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights Thirtieth Session Geneva, June 29 to July 3, 2015 mdocs -> Original: english mdocs -> E cdip/9/2 original: english date: March 19, 2012 Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (cdip) Ninth Session Geneva, May 7 to 11, 2012 mdocs -> E wipo-itu/wai/GE/10/inf. 1 Original: English date copyright -> E sccr/30/2 original: english date: april 30, 2015 Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights Thirtieth Session Geneva, June 29 to July 3, 2015 copyright -> Original: English/francais copyright -> E sccr/33/7 original: english date: february 1, 2017 Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights Thirty-third Session Geneva, November 14 to 18, 2016 copyright -> E workshop copyright -> World intellectual property organization Download 435.31 Kb. Share with your friends:
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