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Streaming Piracy Devices Threaten Hong Kong’s Creative Industry

July 17, 2018

Despite a ground-breaking court decision in 2017, piracy devices and apps have continued to thrive and threaten the survival of the local creative industry.

Last December, the court convicted for the first time a piracy syndicate for “providing circumvention device or service” and “conspiracy to defraud”.

Three men were sentenced to 21 to 27-months imprisonment for illegally providing paid TV channel content through video streaming devices.

While the ruling may serve as a deterrent to digital piracy, a lot more needs to be done to protect copyright owners from rampant piracy activities arising from illicit streaming devices and applications.

The culprits in the above case were brought to justice – but a long three years after the Custom and Excise Department’s raid in 2014. Following the operation, streaming devices or set-top boxes, equipped with pre-loaded applications for unauthorized access to hundreds of TV channels and movies, have remained readily available in shopping outlets across the territory, on online markets and social media platforms.

Last September, the local copyright industry discovered in 87 shops in Wan Chai, Sham Shui Po, Mong Kok, Tsuen Wan and Yuen Long that some 20 brands of piracy devices and apps were on sale at between HK$500 and HK$1,000, catering to customer affordability and needs.

These devices support both live TV streaming and video-on-demand (VOD) for local end users. While most shop owners were cautious not to overtly advertise these devices’ access to illicit content, some of them displayed key words like “jail break”, “free channels around the world” and “watch anything you want”.

None of the 87 shops offered any subscription plan, but most of these streaming devices have pre-installed infringing apps for unauthorized access to copyright content. In fact, a bunch of third-party infringing apps can also be downloaded from app stores and easily installed in these gadgets.

Read full article in the South China Morning Post , 28 March 2018.