Content owners and rights holders incur an annual loss of $750 million in MENA, according to Aditya Verma, senior legal counsel, OSN.
This is due to the use of illegal STBs, unauthorised VPN subscriptions, overspill, internet piracy and torrent downloads.
Speaking at the International Content Protection Summit 2018 in Warsaw, Verma said that there are a variety of piracy problems encountered by OSN, which operates in 25 countries. One of the most common is cable re-distribution, which is seen in markets with poor internet services and very cheap and easy to supply.
Verma added that OSN addresses piracy by having an integrated approach inside the company. This sees legal, sales and operation and technical working together and one of his jobs is to implement the strategy.
The strategy includes the creation of content protection awareness; content security; and enforcement, divided into admin, criminal, civil and customs.
Verma discussed a number of cases where OSN has tackled piracy head on. Perhaps the most complex is one involving DishTV, the largest pay-TV operator in India with almost 20 million subscribers. DishTV devised a “very sophisticated scheme” to exploit satellite overspill that involved hiring a company in Singapore which received money from the region covered by OSN. India itself, as Verma pointed out, has a highly regulated pay-TV market, overseen by around five ministries.
The case with DishTV resulted in the granting of an injunction and relief and is now in the final hearing stage.
Other case studies discussed by Verma included a pirate IPTV service in Jordan; illegal cable distribution in Kuwait; and torrents in UAE.
Verma noted that piracy is very popular in Kuwait despite it being a wealthy country. Furthermore, torrents are making a comeback, as can be seen in UAE.
