DUBAI: Shops promoting unlawful direct-to-domestic (DTH) tv services keep to do commercial enterprise at the same time as the USA’s maximum court docket passed out a three-month prison sentence and a Dh50,000 quality to a DishTV India dealer this week. Random calls made to satellite tv for pc TV sellers confirmed that DishTV, Airtel Digital TV, and Tata Sky decoders are nonetheless conveniently to be had inside the UAE for costs ranging from Dh250 to Dh350. “You need a DishTV set pinnacle container? Yes, we will install it at your vicinity. It will cost Dh250, and it comes with a one-month unfastened subscription,” stated a supplier in Abu Hail, Dubai, who has advertised his services on a famous classifieds internet site.
In Sharjah’s Rolla area, another dealer offered a Tata Sky excessive definition (HD) digital set pinnacle field for Dh300. “If you need a satellite antenna as nicely, it’ll cost more. We will provide after-sales services and additionally recharge the subscription in your behalf,” he boasted. In neighboring Ajman, a supplier presented a Sun Direct decoder for Dh200. Spurred through complaints by pay-TV networks, the Department of Economic Development has raided ratings of unlawful tv carrier vendors over time. The recent crackdown on the Dish TV dealer and next court verdict is a fallout of a grievance by way of OSN. Delivering the verdict, the Court of Cassation said the dealer had infringed upon the copyright and highbrow assets of OSN by using illegally uploading and promoting devices and recharging subscriptions of DishTV India. The court docket also upheld its decision to wreck over 2,000 unlawful set pinnacle packing containers and clever playing cards seized from the person. Simon Wilkes, preferred counsel of OSN, stated: “The ruling sends a clean message that promoting Dish TV India subscriptions inside the UAE is crook, and any dealers doing so will be prosecuted. “We hope that the strict and decisive actions being taken will keep discouraging the practice of selling or the usage of pirate IPTV decoders and DishTV India in the UAE,” he said. Residents at risk It’s not best sellers who’re at hazard. Residents who consume pirated TV offerings and content can also face crook action. Authorities have routinely warned citizens towards subscribing to illegal TV. Many retain to flirt with the law with the aid of smuggling set-top boxes into the UAE or buying them from the underground market. An Indian expat said he brought a DishTV decoder from his place of origin in 2007 to look at the Cricket World Cup. “Back then, airport customs weren’t so strict. I used it for about six years earlier than switching for the advanced HD model which I bought in Ajman. Every time I need to renew my subscription, I pay the supplier in coins or remit cash into his nearby financial institution. I don’t even recognize under whose name my connection is registered,” he said. Many residents stated they opt for illegal satellite tv for pc dish antennas as they are cheaper than local television carriers. “An annual Dish TV package deal which comes with a bouquet of Indian channels expenses among Rs4,000 (Dh250) that’s much less than what I pay monthly to licensed pay-TV operators. That stated, I know the risks a long way outweigh the blessings,” stated every other Indian expat. To remind residents of the damaging effects of TV privateness, the Department of Economic Development issued a be aware in public hobby someday back. It studies: “The advertisement, sale and distribution of tv provider by using unlicensed, unauthorized and illegal tv carrier providers within the UAE is unlawful. “Dish TV/Tata Sky/Sun Direct/Airtel Digital TV isn’t accredited within the UAE, and the sale/use in their dishes, receivers and smart playing cards (or those of some other unauthorized operator) violates highbrow belongings rights and associated laws of the UAE. “Any individual and commercial enterprise selling, the usage of and/or promising the aforementioned illegitimate TV offerings could be contributing and fostering crook activities, inclusive of organized crime and is vulnerable to fines and/or prison terms.” Criminal liabilities bobbing up from infringing highbrow belongings rights Intellectual belongings law overlaps with criminal regulation in lots of ways, one in every of that is piracy of media content material, consistent with Omar Khodeir, senior companion, litigation and Bassam Salah Al Azzeh, companion, highbrow belongings, at Al Tamimi & Company, “This is one of the quickest-developing forms of crook offense and breaches of intellectual property rights (‘IPR’) in the vicinity. UAE investors who’re regularly stuck promoting illegally unlocked set-top boxes (receivers) and internet Protocol tv (IPTV) decoders to customers, which allow customers to get admission to specific TV channels, may also face excessive crook penalties. These glide from several UAE legal guidelines that defend highbrow property trademarks, and copyright, along with the UAE’s Federal Copyright Law No. 7 for 2002, and Federal Trademark Law No. 37 for 1992 and its subsequent amendments. Additional and extra extreme penalties may be imposed if the offenses are finished via electronic structures, making provisions of the Federal Law with the aid of Decree No. 5 of 2012 regarding Combating Cybercrimes, commonly referred to as the Cybercrime Law, also applicable.” they said in Al Tamimi & Company’s Law Update. “In maximum scenarios, the investors or the perpetrators do not count on such severe penalties. However, these sentences display the seriousness with which the crook courts treat breaches of legal guidelines affecting IPR. The operation of receiving the one-of-a-kind TV channels thru the internet from someplace out of the UAE and redistributing the same one at a business degree to consumers in the UAE is a criminal offense as in line with the UAE Federal Copyright Laws No. 7 for 2002 and the Federal Law through Decree No. Five of 2012 concerning Combating Cybercrimes. With the goal to minimise the occurrence of such crimes, the UAE imposes specific policies for this kind to change. With the information that the ones styles of crimes adversely affect crucial sectors, which include the telecommunications region, be it private or public, the courts have a tendency
