saknakorn-istockphoto-com-tv-
3 March 2017Copyright

China police raid factory programming pirate IPTV boxes

Police in China have raided a factory that was illegally programming internet protocol TV boxes to stream pirated content.

The factory, based in Shenzen, was also marketing and selling the boxes under the ‘Filstream’ brand.

Alan Zhou and Roland Lu, the owners and operators of Shenzhen Welnavi Technology factory, were arrested on Tuesday, February 28, and charged with copyright infringement on Wednesday, March 1.

Two senior programmers at the factory were also arrested and charged.

According to a press release from law firm Sheppard Mullin, all those arrested are expected to remain in custody pending trial, which is likely to take place next year.

Copyright infringement has a maximum penalty of seven years in prison in China.

Sheppard Mullin assisted in the raid by filing and providing to Shenzhen police over 30 US copyright registrations as the basis for the copyright infringement charges against the defendants.

Spearheaded by ABS-CBN, a media and entertainment network based in the Philippines, the arrests were a culmination of an eight-month long investigation.

To date, the investigation has resulted in the arrest and seizure of Filstream box distributors in Illinois and Florida.

The criminal arrest and prosecution of additional distributors throughout the US and Canada is ongoing and expected within the coming weeks.

Elisha Lawrence, head of global anti-piracy at ABS-CBN, said: “The police have determined that Zhou and Lu ran a global piracy operation with the intent to interfere with ABS-CBN’s legitimate business.”

According to Lawrence, Zhou and Lu have disrupted the network’s legitimate business.

“In addition, Filstream’s distributors contacted ABS-CBN’s distributors throughout the US, Canada, Australia and Europe, soliciting them to be Filstream’s distributors,” she said.

“They blatantly confused customers by using ABS-CBN’s registered trademarks and logos on their websites and social media sites,” added Lawrence.

ABS-CBN plans to continue to initiate and enforce criminal and civil actions against infringers.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk