Blocking pirate sites might not be a permanent solution to illegal downloading in Asia.
But there’s every indication that it’s a very fine place to start.
In the U.K., Sky Broadband just became the latest platform to block user access to file sharingsite, The Pirate Bay. Others– including BT – are expected to follow the U.K. High Court ruling that found the Swedish site facilitated copyright infringement.
Announcing its decision at the end of May, Sky said it had invested billions of pounds “in high-quality entertainment…because we know how much our customers value it. It’s therefore important that companies like ours do what they can, alongside the government and the rest of the media and technology industries, to help protect their copyright”.
Asia has a scary share ofcountries punching well above their weight in global illegal download rankings… and the pressure is mounting all round to block sites that infringe copyright.
The idea is a multi-pronged push that includes ISPs big and small, pay-TV providers and regulators, among others. Even if some of them are dragged into it kicking and screaming, regulators have to be involved to ensure all ISPs apply site-blocking measures equally, and not only those with content interests.
Meanwhile, the stats remain staggering.
Eleven of the top 50 countries in the world – 22% – for infringing English-language TV shows by volume are in Asia.
China tops the global list, with Australia in fourth spot, Philippines in 10th, India at 11th, Malaysia at 19th and South Korea at 23rd. Singapore, a country of 1.1 million homes, is 24th in the world (and Asia’s top culprit on a per capita basis). Hong Kong is at 38th spot, with Indonesia in 45th place and Japan coming in at 48th.
So far, regulators in Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Korea have sanctioned pirate-site blocking. This month, Korea implemented a cyberlocker registration rule.
Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Japan haven’t – yet – and are in the anti-piracy lobby’s cross-hairs.
Insiders say Singapore is an easy one, with no changes to the law required and major ISPs already behind the move to block pirate sites and protect their subscription revenues.
One of Singapore’s major providers, StarHub says it is concerned by the growth in online piracy. StarHub has 440,000 broadband subscribers and 544,000 pay-TV subscribers.
“We believe that site-blocking (as has been implemented in Malaysia and in several other countries) could help to address this problem,” says Iris Wee, StarHub’s Vice President of Home Solutions & Content.
But, she adds, “we believe that it is necessary for all ISPs to block the pirate sites, and that this could be implemented via a government obligation to block”.
Singapore’s other leading broadband provider, SingTel, is yet to tell us about its stand on site blocking, but insiders say the telco, which also has a major interest in pay-TV content, is all for it.
The Singapore government itself is absolutely 100% committed to IP protection and is in the midst of expanding Singapore’s role as an IP hub for Asia.
Earlier this year, the Minister for Law spoke candidly in Parliament about the country’s worst ranking in online piracy, saying too that six of the top 100 sites visited from Singapore were rogue overseas sites.
So what’s the hold up? That bit is not really clear. Or not to us at least.
One of the arguments that is being made everywhere is that site blocking doesn’t work for longer than the minutes it takes pirate sites to change their names and redirect their traffic.
At the same time, there is ample evidence from digital measurement and research agencies that shows site blocking – whatever the debate over its long-term effectiveness – makes a difference. At least in the short term.
A surprisingly small number of sites are responsible for the bulk of illegal downloads. The site-blocking lobby is using this to make the case that blocking just a few sites could bring down illegal downloads by up to 80%.
Last year, Mark Monitor’s “Traffic Report: Online Piracy and Counterfeiting,” said there were more than 53 billion visits per year to just 43 digital piracy sites. Just three sites at that time (rapidshare, megaupload and megavideo) were responsible for about 40% of that traffic.
In Singapore, 16 sites contribute to the bulk of the problem with illegal downloads, including thepiratebay, which is 82nd on Singapore’s list of top 100 sites. According to Amazon’s Alexa Rankings, thepiratebay ranks higher than Golden Village movie theatre site (at 90th place) and pay-TV provider StarHub (at 92).
If just these 16 were blocked, a significant percentage of the country’s problems with illegal downloading could disappear in the near term, say those in the know.
The problem is by no means confined to Singapore – and it in no way will be eradicated totally by site blocking. But, in the great big overwhelming and never-ending battle being fought, it’s a good place to start.
Article reprinted courtesy of ContentAsia