Signal piracy risk in undersea cables - broadcaster

He was speaking at a two-day conference in Kempton Park where stakeholders representing the African broadcast sector are producing a position paper ahead of the next session of the Special Committee on Copyrights and Regulated Rights in Geneva from June 15 to 24.

Mr Doyle said signal piracy resulted in "losses across the entire TV content distribution platform, from content producers to TV platform companies".

Signal piracy involves the stealing of signal from free-to-air or pay-TV broadcasters using software or hardware systems that bypass broadcasters' encryption.

Mr Doyle said criminal prosecution had proved more effective in SA than expensive civil action via trademark legislation.

"You can fight in court for two years and the guilty party gets a R10000 fine, which is not a deterrent," he said.

For Mr Doyle and Praneel Ruplal of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa), the biggest stumbling block to controlling signal piracy was legislation, or in some cases the lack of it. "Authorities need to be empowered to act under their own administrative procedures to fine or revoke licences without having to wade through copyright law," said Mr Doyle. Copyright law also needed to be better enforced and stronger penalties imposed.

Section 66A of the repealed Information Broadcast Act dealt with issues of ownership and contained definitions never carried forward into later law, which opened serious loopholes for pirates to exploit, said Mr Ruplal.

"The Electronic Communications Act needs to be updated to include elements of the (repealed act) that were excluded."

He said there also needed to be better co-operation between southern African states. Icasa was unable to draw up a memorandum of understanding with Mozambique without the involvement of the communication minister. This hampered efforts to police piracy.

Mr Doyle said MIH recently discovered a company working out of Shanghai, using a similar name to one of its brands, that was selling five SuperSport channels illegally as part of its offering.

MIH is also policing the illegal use of set-top boxes at various levels of sophistication, from simply providing a feed for a neighbour to distributing a signal.

Police Col John Matroos appealed to delegates to work with the police and set up a co-operative body to drive policing of piracy.

"We need evidence to prosecute people and we need co-operation and communication or this problem will just increase. We need to address it now."

Icasa said its Mobile Monitoring Systems, bought ahead of the Soccer World Cup last year to monitor illegal signals, were proving to be very successful.

Source: Business Day