[LINK] Piracy of a different sort

[Jan Whitaker]

[just posted in the Age: big bust in Sydney. The 
relationship to our discussions is at the very end of the article.]


Police raid Sydney 'pirate pay TV outfit offering 
1000 channels for $90 a month'

Asher Moses
December 14, 2011 - 8:08AM

Police have raided the Australian arm of an 
alleged global piracy outfit that they say sold 
$500 set-top boxes and unlicensed pay TV 
subscription packages offering 1000 channels for $90 a month.

The police brief alleges that the Hurstville 
shop, trading as L&D LED Signs, is part of a 
global piracy operation worth $150 million a year and with 100,000 customers.

Michael Speck, former head of Music Industry 
Piracy Investigations (MIPI), was contracted to 
lead the investigation into the operation and 
says customers would be targeted as offenders or 
witnesses. He said there was no doubt that 
"consumers often directly aid and abet these large scale pirate operations".

The raid – during which one man was arrested - 
was sparked by TVB Group, a Chinese language 
content giant that hired a private investigator 
to dig up dirt on the alleged piracy operation.

But while some of the channels on offer were 
Asian language, the police brief and forensics 
report, seen by this website, allege that many of 
the 1000 channels offered Western content from 
providers including MTV, Discovery, ESPN, HBO, Fox, CNN and BBC.

The brief says the television programs offered 
include Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, Superman 
and Family Guy, while movies include Hangover II, 
Mrs Popper's Penguins and Pirates of the Carribean.

NSW Police said its Hurstville local area command 
proactive crime team executed a search warrant at 
a business on Forrest Road in Hurstville about 10:45am yesterday.

Police said the raid was in relation to the 
business "allegedly selling cable television 
decoders and fraudulent access to Chinese television networks".

"They seized a number [of] set-top boxes, other 
electronics equipment and documents," a police spokeswoman said.

"A 56-year-old Hurstville man was arrested at the 
premise[s] and taken to Hurstville Police 
Station. He was released pending further inquiries."

A forensics report compiled by analyst Craig 
Wright allegedly found that the set-top box was a 
"standard embedded PC system" that used 
peer-to-peer video streaming service Vatata to 
grab content from a server in China.

  This reporter is on Twitter: <http://www.twitter.com/ashermoses>@ashermoses

This story was found at: 
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/police-raid-sydney-pirate-pay-tv-outfit-offering-1000-channels-for-90-a-month-20111214-1otn7.html 




Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the 
world is to paint or sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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