Irdeto, video entertainment company MultiChoice’s business unit, is making gains in disrupting the operations of DStv pirate syndicates in South Africa and the rest of Africa region in which it operates.

This, as the company continues to lose money due to the pirate syndicates, which have evolved from using VHS video cassettes, to operating illegal servers on internet service providers.

MultiChoice, in collaboration with South African law enforcement agencies, recently undertook two anti-piracy operations in Florida, Mayfair, Ormonde, Booysens and Kempton Park. These led to the arrests of several individuals involved in the illegal distribution of streaming devices preloaded with unauthorised applications for accessing DStv and other premium content.

This followed several other raids on alleged pirates across South Africa, as MultiChoice continues to close in on the suspects.

These raids show progress in MultiChoice’s ongoing campaign to protect its content, secure the entertainment industry and reduce risks to consumers associated with pirated devices.

ITWeb sat down with Frikkie Jonker, director of broadcast cyber security and anti-piracy at Irdeto, who is the man behind efforts to hunt down pirate syndicates across Africa.

“We follow the pirates. If they jump the African continent and go to Europe, we follow them. If they go to the Americas, we work with the Department of Homeland Security; we work with Interpol, Europol and Afripol,” said Jonker.

“If you are a pirate and you are infringing on our rights and we identify you, we will follow you. It doesn’t matter where you go. It may take a little bit of time but we will get you at the end of the day.”

Irdeto is the cyber security component of MultiChoice Group. “We provide various services, but the way the relationship started was when Koos Bekker started the company [MultiChoice] some 30-plus years ago, he wanted to have a company that encrypts the content on pay-TV so that not everybody could view it but pay.”

At that time, he said, the encryption company was based in the Netherlands with a different name before rebranding to Irdeto.

Reflecting on the evolution of piracy, Jonker said: “When I joined the company about 28 years ago, piracy in the broadcasting sector was when people took a DStv decoder and recorded movies from there and put them on those big VHS video cassettes and sell that [content] to people. This evolved into the burning of CDs. At one point, people started tampering with the chips on MultiChoice decoders so that we could not switch them off.”

This evolved when pirates started utilising content in cable pirate operations, where they pulled a cable from one house to another, he added.

“Every time that happens, we evolve with that, and we develop tools and technology, and we upgrade encryption and hardware to make sure pirates cannot pirate our content anymore. We do this in conjunction with the police, regulators and other partners to address the issue of broadcasting piracy.”

He pointed out that on the African continent, Irdeto is assisting governments to change legislation to make it easier to prosecute pirates.

According to Jonker, while convictions against pirates have been secured, more needs to be done to make the sentences much more of a deterrent.

“We have had a number of convictions in South Africa where pirates were fined R5 000 and some were given suspended sentences. If there are repeat offenders in South Africa, they can get jail sentences.

“From a law perspective, these sentences might not be too deterrent – the fines and the jail sentences may not be that high, but what people don’t understand is that if you are found guilty of a criminal offence, you get a criminal record. So, it doesn’t matter if you get a small or big fine, but you’ve got a criminal record.”

He also warned members of the public about the dangers of making use of pirated broadcasting content.

“In the past couple of years, in South Africa, we have had several arrests, including [in connection with] the notorious pirate network operation, named Waka TV,” he says, noting that Waka TV allegedly works with international crime syndicates.

“That’s what people sometimes don’t realise. They believe that they are just buying this simple decoder called Waka TV, or credentials to access the Waka TV platform. At the end of the day, the issue is there are people behind those people, and those are serious criminals.

“Once they have your details, they can really come after you. They can hack into your bank account; they can hijack your identity and do so many bad things with the information that they have about you.

“For us, when we say we are combatting piracy, that’s one element, but on the other side it is to protect individuals out there because if we do not take these pirates out, the people that entertain them will be exposed to so many negative things that can happen to them.”

He warned that some of the proceeds from broadcasting piracy will end up being used to finance terrorism.

Describing the pirates’ supply chain, he noted: “Most of these guys would just go to China and ask a manufacturer to brand the decoder for them. The other way you can access Waka TV is you may actually not have the decoder, but you can use any streaming device, or one can buy login credentials from them.

“It’s not simply a case about Waka but about all pirate streaming applications out there. They make money in two ways – either they sell you the box with illegal pre-loaded software that has access to their pirate server with illegal content, or they can give you a user name and a password, which allow people to watch content illegally.”

He added that MultiChoice has established Partners Against Piracy (PAP), a Pan-African initiative to combat piracy.

“We can’t just fight piracy as MultiChoice alone. We had to join hands with other creatives in the industry. We have launched PAP in eight or nine African countries already.”