Ruling Chills Sale Of Internet Piracy Tech

(Satellite Business News) — Efforts to crack down on the sale and use of the most commonly available software and standalone streaming devices which allow easy viewing of hundreds of programs, movies, and TV channels from all over the world without payment have resulted in unprecedented success in the last few weeks.

Last summer, in a special report, Satellite Business News outlined how a particular software program and the “add-on” applications which are readily available had led to levels of piracy never seen before. Satellite Business News is, once again, deliberately not mentioning the one key word required to find the program and add-on applications in order to not foster such theft-of-service.

Last week, the oldest and most popular add-on application, “Navi-X,” shut down. As reported, that add-on was installed on almost all of the standalone streaming devices sold on the internet. The standalone devices can be bought on the internet — including from sites such as Amazon — for as little as $35. That add-on application was essentially a portal to hundreds of lists of movies, TV programs, live channels, and other content — many containing dozens of entries themselves.

Satellite Business News has confirmed the add-on is no longer available, and those versions of it already installed on streaming units or other viewing devices have stopped working. However, dozens of others add-on applications are still operating, with new ones regularly appearing. But some only work for a few days, and many disappear as fast they are launched.

Many attribute the recent activity to thwart this avenue of theft to a preliminary ruling a few weeks ago from the Court of Justice of the European Union, the common government which many European countries are members of. Ironically, one of the most aggressive copyright holders in advocating for the court to rule against the sale of standalone streaming devices has been British soccer leagues.

The United Kingdom last year voted to withdraw from the European Union. In its ruling, the Court of Justice attempted to address one of the oldest issues related to theft of programming: Can a device which has legal uses be deemed illegal if the predominate use of that device can be determined to be stealing?

The Court of Justice essentially answered that question in the affirmative, ruling that standalone streaming devices which come with add-ons applications pre-installed that allow buyers to steal programmers should be judged as essentially illegal. The case featured the seller of one of the most widely purchase standalone streaming units in Europe against copyright holders from a number of European countries. In a somewhat rambling decision, the Court of Justice said the devices were being bought by consumers who were largely interested in watching programming without paying for it.

The court wrote that it “is common ground that the sale of [the particular streaming] player was made in full knowledge of the fact that the add-ons containing [Internet] hyperlinks pre-installed on that player gave access to works published illegally on the Internet … [and] the advertising of that [Internet streaming] player specifically stated that it made it possible, in particular, to watch on a television screen, freely and easily, audio-visual material available on the internet without the consent of the copyright holders.”

The court also argued the installation of the add-on applications were done because “the streaming websites at issue in the [case] are not readily identifiable by the public and the majority of them change frequently.” The court also wrote that, “As the Portuguese Government has pointed out, the main attraction of such a [Internet streaming] player for potential purchasers lies precisely in the fact that add-ons are pre-installed on it which enable users to gain access to sites on which copyright-protected films are made available without the consent of the copyright holders.”

In addition, the court wrote, “it must be held that it is, as a rule, deliberately and in full knowledge of the circumstances that the purchaser of such a [Internet streaming] player accesses a free and unauthorized offer of protected works.”

Whether the court ruling will have a lasting impact on the sale and use of such devices remains open to debate. The devices, and software employed to operate them, are still openly available for sale in many places — especially in the U.S. But the court’s ruling does appear to be giving at least some retailers second thoughts.

Amazon’s European website, which many believe has been one of the largest sellers of the devices, now includes a warning about the units. In a section of the site that is likely rarely viewed by consumers, Amazon states: “Products offered for sale on Amazon should not promote, suggest the facilitation of, or actively enable the infringement of or unauthorized access to digital media or other protected content. Any streaming media player or other device that violates this policy is prohibited from sale on Amazon.”

Amazon’s U.S. website still offers the devices for sale, though the sellers have changed many of the descriptions of the products apparently in response to the recent legal activity, and pressure from copyright owners.

Satellite Business News is the leader in coverage of satellite TV and related fields. Its FaxUPDATE is published three times a week. To subscribe, email [email protected].