bigtunaonline
2 July 2020CopyrightRory O'Neill

Telegram: inside the pirate’s cove

Last September, WIPR reported on an  Italian police investigation into groups on the instant messaging services WhatsApp and Telegram, via which up to 500,000 people were accessing copies of Sardinian newspaper  L’Unione Sarda without paying.

Police were able to secure the cooperation of WhatsApp with relative ease,  La Repubblica reported—but not Telegram’s.

Telegram was founded by Russian brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov in 2013 and offers a similar service to WhatsApp’s. Telegram’s USP is its emphasis on privacy and security—it’s the messaging service for people who don’t want authorities or hackers to know what they’re saying.

It’s easy to see Telegram’s appeal, but the potential for unfettered copyright infringement is also obvious. Telegram has a copyright policy: its website invites any rights owner to email a dedicated account with complaints relating to sticker sets, channels, and bots—these are publicly available.

But for other communications, it says: “All Telegram chats and group chats are private among their participants. We do not process any requests related to them.”

Telegram’s unwillingness to divulge any more information about its users, and their use of the platform, than is strictly legally necessary has at times caused tension with copyright owners.

This seems to be particularly true of newspaper publishers. Digital piracy is a challenge for all copyright owners, but usually makes headlines only in relation to sports, film, or TV.

Yet newspapers are rapidly entering the digital age as well, and paid-up subscribers to many well-known papers can access a digital copy to read on their smartphone or tablet.

Users of social media are likely to have seen subscriber-only articles shared online, with the full text “unpaywalled” in comments or screenshots.

In some countries, Telegram poses an even bigger problem. In Italy, Spain, and India, publishers have uncovered channels and groups where the entire digital editions of their newspapers are being shared freely.

Cracking down

Isabella Splendore is general counsel at Federazione Italiana Editori Giornali (FIEG), the association of Italian newspaper publishers.

Splendore has led FIEG’s campaign to crack down on the pirating of e-newspapers on Telegram.

She says Telegram has been on its radar for two years. Speaking to WIPR in June, Splendore explains that, in 2020, FIEG has so far uncovered ten “channels” on Telegram devoted exclusively to sharing e-newspapers.

On April 1, the channels had approximately 600,000 subscribers⁠—all accessing copyright-protected news content without paying.

“Telegram causes the greatest concern to Italian newspaper publishers,” Splendore says. The problem was bad enough, but it has been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

From January 1 to April 1 this year, FIEG recorded a 46% increase in the number of subscribers accessing e-newspapers for free on Telegram, and an 88% spike in the number of titles being pirated on the platform.

For the most part, this activity is not hidden. A Google search will bring up Telegram channels advertising major newspaper and magazine titles for free.

What’s being done? According to Splendore, FIEG grew frustrated with Telegram’s unresponsiveness.

FIEG began by monitoring public channels. Splendore says FIEG contacted Telegram multiple times asking them to block the channels in question, but received no response.

“After many unsuccessful requests, we presented a complaint to AGCOM, the Italian communications regulator,” she explains.

To make its point, FIEG asked AGCOM to issue an “extraordinary” measure: the total closure of Telegram on a temporary basis. Splendore says this request was “symbolic”—an attempt to get Telegram to come to the table and collaborate with the authorities.

It worked. After AGCOM became involved, FIEG was able to get the infringing channels blocked.

Splendore says that Telegram could do a lot more to work with copyright owners. “Telegram communicates to subscribers only to say ‘please stop this activity’. That’s all it does, nothing more,” she says.

FIEG is pushing for enhanced powers for AGCOM to compel Telegram to act under Italian law, and to investigate private groups.

Telegram has not been willing to hand over any information about its users or their private communications, as per its privacy policy, but a new law is under debate by Italian lawmakers.

The legislation, backed by FIEG, would give AGCOM authority over Telegram, and allow it to compel internet service providers (ISPs) to block the platform if it does not cooperate with authorities’ requests to identify infringers.

Spanish steps

Piracy on Telegram channels has not been a challenge only for rights owners in Italy. In Spain too, newspaper publishers and authorities have grappled with large channels distributing e-papers for free.

Publishers in Spain, however, have found Telegram to be more cooperative than their Italian counterparts did.

“We have been in contact and talking to Telegram for several years,” says Javier Díaz de Olarte, head of legal at the non-profit Spanish Reproduction Rights Centre (CEDRO).

According to Díaz de Olarte, CEDRO has been able to convince Telegram of the importance of tackling IP infringement on the platform.

“We have not begun any legal proceedings against them because they have shown that they are willing to cooperate and react quickly when we inform them about illegal activity on their platform,” he says.

It wasn’t always that way. The relationship CEDRO has built with Telegram is based on “many years” of hard work, Díaz de Olarte recalls.

“It was only after a lot of work that CEDRO was able to convince Telegram to block public channels distributing newspaper content for free,” he says.

“Even then, the channels were only blocked through the Telegram app, so the channels were still available on the website.”

As their working relationship improved, CEDRO was able to get the channels blocked on Telegram’s site too.

“Our next step is trying to stop the creation of new channels by the same users over again. There is still a long way ahead,” he adds.

Although Díáz de Olarte’s account indicates that Telegram can be a reliable partner in tackling copyright infringement, it’s not only FIEG who have found the platform to be a stubborn opponent.

In early June, WIPR reported that the  Delhi High Court had ordered Telegram to hand over the identity of users sharing e-newspapers for free.

The complaint was brought by the publisher of the Dainik Jagran, India’s most popular Hindi-language daily newspaper.

According to the publisher, more than 19,000 people accessed the illegal edition on May 18—several hundred more than official subscribers reading the digital paper via legitimate channels.

The Indian publisher’s efforts to engage Telegram are reminiscent of Splendore’s account: Jagran contacted Telegram four times in April and May to demand that they identify the users, but received no reply.

Jasmine Joynson is a spokesperson for the Publishers Association, a UK body which represents publishers of books and journals.

She says publishers are increasingly reporting more instances of copyright infringement on Telegram, as well as other social media and messaging services such as WhatsApp and China’s WeChat.

“Publishers have reported being unsuccessful in closing down groups that exist for the purpose of sharing infringing content and not receiving responses to takedown requests,” Joynson says.

“In particular, Telegram does not appear to make any effort to identify groups that have the specific purpose of sharing infringing content, or to enforce an effective repeat infringer policy.”

The experience of Spanish publishers shows that Telegram can be convinced to work with copyright owners, but this seems to be an arduous task.

It is no surprise, given the importance of privacy and security to Telegram’s appeal, that its first instinct is not to hand over information about its users to copyright owners.

This is what makes the platform stand out as a challenge for newspaper publishers. Telegram is not quite a free haven for piracy, but the experiences of publishers in India and Italy indicate that it can be slow and reluctant to act.

WIPR contacted Telegram to discuss these issues, but similar to the experiences of FIEG and the publishers of Jagran, there has been no reply.

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


More on this story

Copyright
23 September 2019   Italian authorities are investigating the operators of groups on the WhatsApp and Telegram platforms which facilitate the pirate distribution of newspapers, according to reports.
Copyright
1 June 2020   The Delhi High Court has ordered instant messaging service Telegram to hand over the identity of users sharing e-newspapers for free on the platform.