Dutch content pirates discovered by Irdeto sentenced


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Editor

| 23 December 2015




Law authorities in the Netherlands, assisted by revenue protection technology provider Irdeto, has seen the successful conviction of two control word sharing pirates.



Following the successful 2013 raid of five homes in Apeldoorn, Enschede, Vlagtwedde and The Hague, the pirates arrested during these raids have been sentenced at a court in Zutphen, The Netherlands. Two defendants received 100 hours of community service, two months of conditional imprisonment and two years probation.

“Pay-TV piracy will not be tolerated in The Netherlands, and it is our intent to ensure that these sentences dissuade others from illegal content distribution,” said Ger Laning of the Dutch Police. “Piracy poses a severe threat to pay media businesses. By working with technology and anti-piracy experts like Irdeto, we are able to disrupt pirate activity and bring criminals to justice. The Dutch Police will continue to protect the revenues of Dutch pay-TV operators by combating this type of cybercrime.”

The case began in 2011 when Irdeto and local Dutch TV providers began investigations into several suspects offering control word sharing equipment and illegal pirate subscriptions for sale. Ongoing investigations revealed that the control word sharing networks in question were also providing unauthorised pirated access to international pay-TV channels. Control word sharing occurs when a pirate steals and retransmits a regularly changing control word that is passed between a smart card and a set-top-box (STB), allowing subscribers to watch TV content they have not legitimately paid for. In this case, Irdeto was able to prepare detailed evidence regarding the control word sharing networks in question.

“While this only represents the beginning of much larger cases, Irdeto welcomes this latest successful prosecution and will continue working against the criminal operations that target our customers’ valuable content,” said Irdeto senior director, cyber services and investigations Mark Mulready. “To reduce revenue loss, businesses must understand the threat that they are facing and rigorously counteract pirate activity. Irdeto, as a trusted security partner and subject matter expert, will continue to work closely with pay-TV operators to gather information on criminal activity and also with law enforcement to secure convictions.”