The Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO), Irdeto and Kenyan police have arrested the administrators of an illegal streaming company…
The Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO), Irdeto and Kenyan police have arrested the administrators of an illegal streaming company functioning in Kenya. The sting operation led to the arrest of Engineer Kelvin Kiplangat Sing’oei, the alleged mastermind and the confiscation of equipment that will be properly assessed by the CID Cyber Crime Unit, Techweez reports.
Content piracy is a serious problem worldwide, according to the Partners Against Piracy (PAP) Association of Kenya, a multi-stakeholder coalition of like-minded groups in the creative industry working to eliminate piracy. Illegal streaming is expected to cost Kenyans more than KES 10 billion per year.
The proliferation of high-quality content and improved streaming technology has made it easier for pirates to get and disseminate information unlawfully. This is a significant issue for material creators and distributors since it costs them money and can harm their reputations.
People in Kenya illegally stream content for a variety of reasons. One reason for this is that it is frequently less expensive than paying for legitimate streaming services. Another advantage is that consumers can watch information on their own devices anytime they want.
“Where producing African content for African audiences stops being profitable or worthwhile, production stops. So, the creative industries of Kenya and Africa will be the biggest losers,” said Mike Strano, Chair of PAP. “Also, if piracy succeeds, consumers will be reduced to making do with poor quality entertainment, old content, and content that does not fulfill the needs of their community or their culture.”
Kenya’s fight against piracy
The fight against piracy is a fight to keep the creative industries protected from losses. In Africa, there have been thousands of reports about the staggering rise of piracy over the years. Though the clamours are heard, there has been no total eradication of the perpetuation of this intellectual property theft. Kenya hopes to put up a fight against this vice, which has eaten deep into the fibre of Africa’s entertainment industry.
Kenya’s government has taken steps to combat unlawful streaming. The government passed the Copyright Amendment Act in 2020, which makes streaming content without the authorization of the copyright holder unlawful. In addition, the government has collaborated with ISPs to prevent access to unlawful streaming websites.
Despite the implementation of these regulations, unauthorized streaming remains a big issue in Kenya. It remains a problem many African countries are yet to find a proper solution for.
“Internet streaming piracy is not only a criminal offense, but also poses serious risks to consumers who may have their personal data, including banking information, compromised by pirate operations”, Strano continued. “PAP Kenya would like to emphasize that engaging in internet streaming piracy is illegal, and like-minded stakeholders will continue to fight against this form of theft, leaving no stone unturned.”
Intellectual property theft cases in Africa
In 2022, statistics revealed that African users went online in search of large volumes of pirated content, which is a severe blow to the preservation of Africa’s content-creation industries.
According to Irdeto, a software security and media technology business, consumers in five main African territories made around 17.4 million visits to the top ten detected piracy sites on the internet. This traffic is part of the total of 345,4 million visits to piracy sites by global visitors from June to August of this year.
During the study period, the most popular content piracy site tracked by Irdeto received 92.2 million visitors from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania.
With seven million visits, Kenya had the highest number of pirated material users among the African territories analyzed during the piracy survey.
With five million visitors, South Africa came in second. There were around 2.4 million visits from Ghana, 2.3 million from Nigeria, and 626,694 from Tanzania.