AVIA Hails Victory in Singapore Piracy Case

The Singapore High Court has granted an order sought by BBC Studios, Discovery, the Premier League, La Liga and TVB for local internet service providers to block access to a range of sites streaming pirated content.

According to the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA), Singaporean ISPs will block access to 17 domains associated with popular piracy streaming sites and 41 domains associated with popular illicit streaming device (ISD) applications.

Neil Gane, the general manager of AVIA’s Coalition Against Piracy (CAP), commented, “The content industry will make every effort to prevent and disrupt the illegal feeds of live sports, TV channels and VOD content which are being monetized by crime syndicates. Consumers who buy ISDs or access piracy streaming sites are not only funding crime groups, but also wasting their time and money when the channels and websites stop working. Piracy services do not come with a ‘service guarantee,’ no matter what the ISD seller or website operators may claim.”

According to a survey commissioned by AVIA’s CAP and conducted by YouGov, 17 percent of Singaporean consumers (and 32 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds) access streaming piracy websites or torrent sites and 10 percent use an ISD to stream pirated content.