A complaint has been launched against a pirated website owner for the violation of piracy laws. The Abu Dhabi Court has found him guilty that the administrator of a pirate website was using material with copyrights illegally. He was uploading torrents and providing illegal streaming of copyrighted TV series, movies and misusing premium television platform and hence violating the OSN’s intellectual property rights such as copyrights, patents and trademarks. OSN is Orbit Showtime Network, it is a direct-broadcast satellite television provider in all over the MENA (The Middle East and North Africa).
OSN filed a complaint in Abu Dhabi police station against the torrent uploader. The police investigated the matter and send the complaint with evidence to the public prosecutor to file a criminal case against him. The public prosecutor prepared the charge of a criminal offence against the pirate. To satisfy the merits of justice, a technical expert was specially hired by the court to help in the hearings. The expert was present in the court during hearings, he himself went through the evidence presented in the court and cross-questioned the defense counsel of accused. The court had given its decision based on facts and evidence presented by the technical expert in his report. The courts passed a judgement against the pirate which is six months of imprisonment in jail and to deport him to his home country once his sentence is completed.
To compensate the damage caused to the OSN due to copyright and trademark infringement, the court also ordered the pirate to pay 50 thousand Dirham to OSN. The court further instructed the public prosecutor’s office to block the pirate website with the help of TRA (Telecommunications Regulatory Authority). At first, the pirate was sent to jail for about two months and has since appealed the decision. The General Counsel of OSN, Sophie Moloney said that the system has adopted all the extreme cautions to each form of television piracy. Because of this vigilance, all the websites streaming pirated illegal content has been blocked in the United Arab Emirates.
She further added that Stealing content such as movies or television series is a criminal offence, whether you published it online or selling aspirated DVDs in the shops or markets, and the financial impact of such piracy will be the same on the legitimate copyright owners. She added that our hard work for piracy has been paid off in positive results against the Dish TV India. She said that OSN has taken important measures or steps in the fight against IPTV piracy. The action has been taken against illegal TV operators will serve as a strict warning against television piracy. The public will also add their contribution to fighting against piracy. They should voluntarily avoid accessing illegal contents on any platforms.
According to the International Data Corporation, the estimate of losses caused to the content and consumer product creation industries every year is more than 750 million dollars in the Middle East and Africa only. The reasons for these losses are the use of illegal set-top boxes, unlicensed VPN subscriptions, and torrent downloads. In recent years OSN has started an awareness and action campaign against television piracy. This campaign has united other TV content providers under the same cause which is ‘Do the Right Thing’ campaign in the region. It has resulted in a positive way and directed to several high-profile raids and punishments across the Middle East and North Africa.
