South African law enforcement conducted raids against two illegal operations that resulted in the seizure of illegal streaming devices and several arrests. Both were in collaboration with Africa’s largest media company, MultiChoice.
One raid was conducted on October 29 in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, after a police investigator purchased an illicit streaming device (ISD) pre-loaded with MultiChoice programming. The individual was then arrested, and was later identified to be part of a crime network.
A separate operation was conducted at four sites in Johannesburg, which also involved ISDs that were pre-loaded with premium programming and pre-configured access to DStv, a MultiChoice service. The enforcement operation uncovered the distribution network and identified three individual offenders. On October 30, the individuals were arrested and their illegal devices were seized.
Collaboration
Both law enforcement operations were collaborations between MultiChoice and The Hawks, a branch of the South African police service that investigates organized crime.
“The South African Police Service and courts play an invaluable role in safeguarding intellectual property and supporting our mission against piracy,” said Frikkie Jonker, the director of broadcast anti-piracy and cybersecurity at Irdeto, the security technology arm of MultiChoice. “The South African police force and South African courts play an invaluable role in safeguarding intellectual property and supporting our mission against piracy,” he said.
Piracy Monitor spoke with Mr Jonker in November, who provided some interesting perspectives and insights around the bigger picture of piracy and the fight against it.
Outcomes
The offenders in both cases were released on bail, pending the analysis of the seized ISDs and further investigation.
Further reading
DStv nails two streaming piracy kingpins. Article. November 5, 2024. MyBroadband (South Africa)
MultiChoice completes multiple anti-piracy raids. Article. by Robin-Leigh Chetty. Novembe 5, 2024. Hypertext (South Africa)
Why it matters
Raids like these are part of an ongoing campaign by MultiChoice to ensure that its programming is distributed only within its licensing guidelines. These October raids followed separate operations against another piracy operation, Waka TV, in June and September which resulted in its shutdown.
MultiChoice is more strict than many TV programmers in that unauthorized distribution is almost always referred to law enforcement. Other TV programmers and distributors pursue softer mitigation techniques, such as challenging users for their passwords, or by charging for password sharing. Also, when other TV programmers discover that their content is being distributed in markets where there are no legitimate distributors, many simply identify and pursue local distribution partnerships, but that is not the case with MultiChoice.
Bigger picture, “Piracy is not a victimless crime; it undermines the creative industry, affecting the livelihoods of those who work tirelessly to produce quality content while organized crime syndicates reap the profits,” said Mr. Jonker.
