The satellite TV operator NTV-Plus applies the amendments to the Russian laws for countering piracy.
Specifically, it is referred to card sharing, a method of illegal watching the operator’s TV channels, as ComNews reports.
Following the company’s lawsuits, the Moscow City Court ruled to lock some pirate Internet resources, and put them down to the general register of banned web portals. The TV operator actually estimated its lost profits as RUR 1 billion per year.
According to Sergey Alyoshin, Deputy CEO for Corporate Security, NTV-Plus has been fighting card sharing pirates for a long time, since when the technology was lesser-known. Alyoshin stresses that even now this scheme seems to be intricate and not very clear for many people. Card sharing allows accessing not the content, but its decryption keys, as the Deputy CEO stated.
Alyoshin also points out that previously the company also tried to deal with this phenomenon, but without corresponding legal framework any effort to eradicate card sharing was not crowned with success, and the relevant legislation appeared only within the anti-piracy law. The amendments came into effect only on May 1 of this year.
During 2014, the law enforcement authorities of the Russian Federation brought 14 cases against violators, i.e. 8 of them were submitted to the court, and seven persons turned out convicted.
Since the last year, the defenders of Tricolor’s rights have prepared civil lawsuits against the convicted individuals under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The money equivalent of these lawsuits can amount up to several million rubles. The Moscow City Court ordered several pirates to reimburse company’s material damages, and the property of one of the law-violators was arrested. As a result, according to Tricolor TV’s monitoring, the number of card sharing pirates has significantly reduced, as they became actually aware that a small profit from card sharing entailed significant and unpleasant effects. In fighting such a piracy Tricolor TV has been cooperating with the investigative authorities not only in Russia but also in CIS countries.
The TV satellite operator Orion Express has been fighting piracy in a slightly different way. As the company’s representative points out, the operator’s satellite platform is breaking all records by the number of supported content access systems. There are totally 5 of them, and they were designed by the best international manufacturers, as well as equipped with numerous security systems that significantly reduce the risk of card sharing.
