Technology has put content pirates ahead of the curve in Singapore, experts say
Pirates get around copyright with new technology that doesn’t decode encrypted broadcasts, but merely streams existing content
By Valerie Koh
Technology advancements have put purveyors of piracy ahead of the curve, making it more difficult to tackle the issue, said intellectual property lawyers and experts.
Their comments came in the wake of Bloomberg’s report, in which the Asia-based Coalition Against Piracy called Singapore a haven for piracy of copyrighted programming by media companies such as Walt Disney and HBO.
Set-top boxes – used to stream movies, television shows or sports programmes – have, in the past, decoded encrypted broadcasts offered by Starhub. The sale and distribution of these decoders are illegal under the Broadcasting Act.
However, in the past three to five years, new technologies have allowed pirates to circumvent the law. The latest iteration makes use of apps to access copyrighted content.
“The technology now is different… the set-top boxes do not need to decrypt programming – they merely need to search for the content out there and then stream it. This gives the added advantage of on-demand viewing,” said Mr Bryan Tan, a partner at Pinsent Masons law firm.