Indonesia police arrest major pirate operator illegally streaming content

The operators of pirate sites PaseoTV and OkStream have been arrested by West Java Regional Police after it was found that it was illegal streaming pirate content owned or licensed by Vidio, including the Premier League, Ligue Un and AFC

OkStream was one of the most popular pirate streaming sites in Indonesia, with millions of views every month. The owner and operator of the sites also operated a Telegram account that was used to share links to Paseo and OkStream sites, according to a joint release by the Asia Video Industry Association (AVIA) and
its anti-piracy arm, the Coalition Against Piracy (CAP).

The owner of the sites now faces potential penalties of up to eight years in prison and a fine of up to two billion rupiah after Vidio reported the sites on 16 October.

Don’t miss: More Indonesians turning away from illegal pirate sites for content

“Vidio’s piracy mitigation commitment requires collaboration not only with law enforcement and industry associations, but also cooperation with the public,” said Gina Golda Pangaila, senior vice president of legal anti-piracy and government affairs at Vidio.

“Effective anti-piracy measures are critical for maintaining the integrity and sustainability of the content industry,” she added.

“Indonesia has one of the best site blocking programs in Asia-Pacific, however site blocking is not sufficient alone to protect content, and action by local enforcement teams remains a vital component in protecting both the local content industry and consumers who are increasingly being targeted by pirates for the spread of malware, viruses and identify theft,” said Matt Cheetham, the general manager of CAP.

This comes as more Indonesians begin turning away from illegal pirate sites for content as a whole. The Indonesian government has been blocking illegal sites since the middle of 2019, and by April this year, the total number of sites blocked in Indonesia topped 3,500. This was done with the help of CAP to track traffic to sites that have been blocked in Indonesia, as well as overall traffic to pirate sites and legitimate sites.

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