According to information received by CODA, Taiwan, the Telecommunications Investigation Corp (First Squadron), the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Second Special Police Corps, the First Precinct of the Hsinchu City Police Bureau, and the Criminal Investigation Brigade of the Kinmen County Police Bureau raided the bases of criminal organizations that illegally provided TV program signals for ISDs (illegal streaming devices) in Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Taichung City, Changhua County, Tainan City, and Kinmen County from August to December this year and arrested 11 suspects. In response, the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Telecommunications Investigation Corp held a press conference on this case on December 20.
During the search of 26 ISD-related locations conducted at the time of the arrest, 400 ISDs, five server devices, host computers, cell phones, and personal computers were seized from three of these locations. From June 2019 to the present, more than 10,000 ISDs have already been sold, with damage estimated to exceed 1 billion Taiwan dollars (approximately 4.08 billion yen).
In a press conference, the Criminal Investigation Bureau, National Police Agency, Ministry of the Interior stated the following comments. “The suspects and other criminal organizations used hacking techniques to steal the signals of each OTT (over-the-top) platform. The act of transferring signals to ISDs not only infringes on the content of the TV and movie industries but also adversely affects intellectual property protection. The use of ISDs encourages infringement by illegal operators. It may also result in signal interception by law enforcement agencies.”
CODA will continue to work closely with local investigative agencies to protect Japanese content in Taiwan.
