Cable Broadband Institute in Taiwan chief executive officer Claudia Peng (彭淑芬) yesterday expressed concern that illegal set-top boxes could provide a channel for China’s “united front” efforts.
The institute estimated that more than 7 million illegal over-the-top (OTT) boxes have been imported into the nation, Peng said.
The illegal set-top boxes, which have also been used in hotel rooms throughout Taiwan, stream pirated content, including many television programs promoting Taiwan’s unification with China, she said.
Photo: Taipei Times
“The problem with these devices is that they are used as tools of cognitive warfare, quietly influencing the culture and ideology of Taiwan’s youth without people realizing it,” she said.
In the past, manufacturers of illegal OTT boxes would preinstall apps that allowed users to connect directly to servers and watch pirated or unauthorized content, resulting in cases of copyright infringement, she said.
Today, to avoid sales bans, many makers sell the boxes without any preinstalled software, requiring users to find and install apps themselves from online sources to evade regulations, she added.
Authorities have encountered complaints that some hotels offer guests about 10 Chinese channels, including Chinese state media broadcaster China Central Television and various provincial satellite channels, she said.
The content on these channels often glorifies Chinese culture and promotes unification, she said.
“Based on available information, these hotels are likely using illegal set-top boxes to access these programs illegally, potentially contravening the Copyright Act (著作權法),” Peng said, adding that the law requires approval for the broadcast of Chinese programs.
Illegally broadcasting the channels also constitutes a contravention of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), she said.
In the past government enforcement was insufficient, with authorities regarding private use of OTT boxes as “personal behavior,” Peng said.
This led the public to believe that it was “harmless and legal,” and hotel operators similarly assumed that use of the boxes would be harmless, but it is a false assumption, she said.
Aside from the potential national security concerns of the content broadcast on the devices, their unauthorized use of licensed content costs the Taiwanese industry more than NT$28 billion (US$948.2 million) annually in losses, she said.
The broadcast of Chinese programs in Taiwan requires approval from the Ministry of Culture’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development, which also places restrictions on broadcast hours, National Communications Commission (NCC) Secretary-General Huang Wen-che (黃文哲) said.
If a hotel broadcasts content that comes from illegal set-top boxes or other sources, that could contravene the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, Huang said.
However, enforcement of that law is under the jurisdiction of the Mainland Affairs Council, he said.
The commission’s authority only covers certification of the OTT box hardware’s radio frequency compliance, he said.
Copyright infringements would be separately handled by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Intellectual Property Office, he said.
If a hotel knowingly provides a set-top box that accesses licensed content without approval, it could be considered an accomplice or abettor in copyright infringement, with severe cases resulting in fines of up to NT$500,000, the Intellectual Property Office said.
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