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Federal body pulls plug on illegal TV viewers
Regulatory authority says it will protect pay channels' rights on the internet
Dubai: Federal authorities have unplugged television viewers who descramble pay TV channels by downloading illegal pay TV encryption codes from the internet.
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) claims it is now the first country in the world to block websites that provide black market pay TV encryption data to viewers who use the information to bypass scrambled satellite and cable signals.
Monday the TRA said it will "protect pay channels' rights on the internet."
The new measures will "protect intellectual property rights," the authority said.
Mohammad Al Ganem, Director-General of the TRA, said that "the UAE gives the utmost importance to intellectual property to ensure the most advantageous economic environment through supporting owners of property rights. This step will protect consumers against this type of fraud and it will limit infringement of intellectual property rights and violation of federal laws." Similar to pay TV signal theft in other countries, the TRA said that it found scrambled television channels "were illegally decrypted and distributed over the internet using card sharing, a method through which a satellite receiver obtains decryption data continuously from an active card, while being connected to the internet.
This illegal action infringes intellectual property rights of others and violates federal laws, many consumers fall victims for such illegal activity."
Some global estimates say that four out of 10 pay-for-TV movies watched are done through illegal acquisition of content.
According to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), "Signal theft refers to the act of illegally misappropriating satellite signals without authorisation."
"Those involved with signal theft often provide consumers with illegal cable decoders or satellite descramblers in order to provide unauthorised access to satellite broadcasts," said the MPAA.
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