Courts in Singapore and India clamp down on TV and streaming piracy
Media giants Netflix, Warner Bros, Apple, Disney and BBC Studios are today celebrating the granting of two injunctions they hope will combat the widespread piracy of copyrighted TV and streaming content in Singapore and India.
In the first case, UK-based production and distribution group BBC Studios and football associations the Premier League in England and DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga have secured a site-blocking order in Singapore.
The news was announced by the Asia Video Industry Association’s Coalition Against Piracy (CAP), which hailed the development as “another significant step in Singapore’s ongoing efforts to disrupt large-scale digital piracy.”
Granted by the High Court in Singapore, the enforcement targets 22 major piracy website brands, covering 53 domains in total.
The blocked sites were among the most popular such sites in the South-East Asian country, allowing users to access illegal streaming, torrents and downloads of video content and live sports coverage.
In India, meanwhile, the High Court in Delhi has granted an injunction in favour of the Motion Picture Association, which had complained of sites illegally streaming content from Netflix, Warner Bros, Apple, Disney and anime streamer Crunchyroll.
The sites had infringed numerous copyrights by providing access to films and TV series such as Stranger Things, Friends and Squid Game.
Justice Tejas Karia passed the order, directing internet service providers to block access to unauthorised websites within 72 hours.
The court said: “To keep up with the hydra-headed nature of the infringement actions of such infringing domains or websites, this court finds it fit to grant a Dynamic+ injunction to protect the plaintiffs’ copyrighted works as soon as they are created, to ensure that no irreparable loss is caused to the owners of copyrighted works.”
Piracy and the use of technology such as Firesticks continues to be an issue for the global TV industry, with both broadcasters and streaming platforms alike losing revenue to illegal streaming sites.
At C21’s Content Warsaw event in 2024, TV executives in Central and Eastern European markets described piracy as a “huge problem” in the region. They have called on governments and advertisers to clamp down on the issue with heavy fines and improved legislation.
In Singapore, CAP hailed the success of the site blocking order, while warning that piracy services are becoming more sophisticated in their efforts to avoid prosecution. CAP also said that in addition to harming the TV and film industry ecosystem, illegal sites increasingly expose consumers to malware, data theft, financial scams and identity fraud.
Matt Cheetham, general manager of CAP, said: “Site-blocking continues to be one of the most proven and impactful anti-piracy mechanisms globally.
“This latest order underscores the Singapore courts’ recognition of the harm caused by these illegal services. As piracy networks become more agile, ensuring that legislative procedures and implementation processes remain current and efficient is essential for maintaining the effectiveness of Singapore’s site blocking framework.”
