If you've read the other two blogs in this series, you'll be fully up to speed. If not, you can catch up on the human motivations of a pirate and a deep dive into the pirate ecosystem and economy.
The Technology Conundrum
Today's hyper-connected lives means there's not a lot we do that doesn't involve some form of connected device talking to a server somewhere. Heating, travel, leisure, even taking a photo on our phones, our interaction with technology is ubiquitous. The challenge though, is that for every positive use of technology, there is an equivalent where it is used to cause harm at either an individual or industry level. Readers of the first two blogs will be familiar with the concept of piracy eras marked - and ended - by technology advancements. The IPTV era, described to us as a hornet's nest, has made opening illegal streaming services as easy as opening a laptop. Like a game of chess, the industry needs to block each pirate move to deliver an ultimate checkmate. In terms of the how', the pirate we interviewed had these words of advice for the M&E industry: Educate, Collaborate and Protect.
Educate: Driving Change in Consumer Behavior
Our pirate told us that his school age children are increasingly being educated about IP theft. Now with supporting legislation, the law has teeth through which to prosecute; laws that didn't exist when a lot of today's pirates were taking their formative steps into the IT industry. While such education will help to enrich knowledge of school age children, further industry initiatives need to be taken to drive changes in consumer behavior. Attempts have been made before such as in the early 2000's the UK's Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) and the Motion Picture Association of America in co-operation with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore created a video that played at the cinema and on DVDs under the title of You Wouldn't Steal a Car, Piracy is a Crime'. While it showed downloading films to be a crime, it didn't focus on the wider industry implications - which include the direct financial impact on the creative industries as reduced budgets, caused by lower box office or distribution revenues, means less content will be created.
Collaborate: An Industry That's Stronger Together
Given the scale of piracy activity in the industry today, no single organization is going to bring piracy to a halt. Yet collectively, through industry coalitions such as Alianza, AVIA/CAP, IBCAP and Sygnat, all of which NAGRA is a proud member of, shared intelligence and insight is proven to drive effective action. And there are many examples of where this has happened. Operation 404 has been a large operation in Brazil, now in its fifth year of operation. It continually tackles piracy through Alianza, a coalition of content owners, industry bodies, law enforcement organizations and vendors. The firepower of such a body and the prosecutions it can leverage are significant. In our interview with the pirate, the continuous fear of getting caught came to a head when he received a single phone call threatening legal action and with it the risk of enormous debt. He stopped immediately. Other tactics such as knock and talk', as evidenced recently in the UK, can also be used in conjunction with law enforcement to deliver a strong message well before costly prosecutions are launched.
Protect: Keeping One Step Ahead
Pirates steal through technology so the best way to defeat them is with better technology. Technologies such as forensic watermarking and wider content protection solutions all have a key role to play in blocking piracy attempts. With solutions like forensic watermarking, there is no debate if the content is pirated - it's clear who the content was licensed to and consequently where the leak originated. Not watermarking content is not only compromising potential revenue but also gives pirates free rein. Equally, if you're a content owner, and your content has been pirated, without watermarking, you can't know where in the distribution process or which licensee has caused the leak. This means recourse or even stopping the leak becomes impossible.
Look Before You Leap
Perhaps one of the sagest lessons from our interview with the pirate was also the simplest. The level of change in our industry demands rapid innovations through which to satisfy and delight subscribers. Used to attract and retain subscribers, new features are deployed to ensure competitive positions are retained and value is preserved. However, each time an update is issued to a service, it is immediately leapt on by the pirate community. Knowing the pace of change can compress development timelines, they interrogate the software to identify new opportunities that can be exploited. These loopholes, which may be found in one or many of the range of devices needing to be supported by today's video service operators can potentially provide the next hornet's nest of activity for pirates as content is gathered for inclusion in the pirate service.
But pirates also exploit loopholes across the entire content distribution chain. Pirates focus on how subscribers consume content which can mean exploiting vulnerabilities that are created through compressed development timelines of new features and the delivery of increasingly complex use cases. Ensuring that every door and every window is closed to prevent illicit access is key if the industry is to outplay our pirate foes.
It is because of these vulnerabilities that solutions are required to protect against streaming piracy. To address this threat, video service operators worldwide are using solutions such as NAGRA Active Streaming Protection to ensure every door and every window remains securely cl
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...
19/11/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
19/11/2025
Calrec gives Phoenix Broadcast Solutions its full support in strategic multi-year enterprise partnership New Singapore OB company invests in Calrec technology f...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Vitec has acquired Datapath, a developer of real-time video processing for large-scale video walls, AVoIP content distribution and KVM control in mission-critic...
19/11/2025
NEVADA CITY, Calif. Telestream has introduced ARGUS Version 2.3, which introduces Live Look, a feature that lets operators inspect live and on-demand streams vi...
19/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter Communications, Inc. has announced a major deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that establishes AWS as one of Charters stra...
19/11/2025
TOKYO Atomos has announced a major firmware update that brings integrated camera control to the Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX its new CFexpress-based monitor-recor...
19/11/2025
Berklee's Signature Series Reimagines the Musical and Visual Artistry of Col...
19/11/2025
PlayBox Neo departed the NAB Show New York 2025 on a high note. The company's all-new PlayBox Neo Suite made a splash on the show floor, drawing strong inte...
19/11/2025
AAVBR (American Audio Visual Baton Rouge), a leading full-service event production company serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, has enhanced its product...
19/11/2025
In its mission to deliver live event services combining advanced engineering with a creative approach to captivating live sports and entertainment experiences, ...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of c...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, and CAMB.AI have struck a partnership they said will leverage ...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has issued detailed guidance on filings that were disrupted by the government shutdown. While many of those fil...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according...
19/11/2025
DirecTV has announced that its MyFree DirecTV streaming service has added seven new channels. Those include four sports services, NBA FAST, Red Bull TV, DAZN Ri...
19/11/2025
SURREY, U.K. Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has launched Flair Bridge, a compact device that transforms how operators control the company's motion-contr...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission, which is continuing to rapidly ramp up its operations after the end of the federal government shutdown, has se...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Martin Freeman, Jessie Buckley, Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, Eddie the Eagle and ...
19/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz collaborates with Broadcom to enable testing and validation of n...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Innato, starring Imanol Arias and Elena Anaya, arrives on Netf...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Guillermo del Toro Sits Down With Troll 2 Director Roar Uthaug...
19/11/2025
Some projects feel monumental from the moment the first phone call comes in. When BCE, the host broadcaster appointed to coordinate the national coverage, asked...
19/11/2025
November 19 2025, 08:00 (PST) BAY AREA HOST COMMITTEE AND DOLBY PARTNER TO DELIVER IMMERSIVE FAN EXPERIENCES
During the Week of Football's Biggest Game...
19/11/2025
Michael D. Higgins: Ireland's Ninth President features RT Archives footage and interviews across seven decades
Watch Wednesday 19 November at 9:35pm on RT...
19/11/2025
Scripps Research scientists receive $1.1 million to advance AI modeling for HIV vaccine development New AI system helps scientists rapidly pinpoint the most pro...
18/11/2025
Independent media across Central America are operating under intensifying financial pressure, yet there is a clear appetite for models that can sustain both ind...
18/11/2025
NBA Debuts New Comms Infrastructure and Systems for RefereesTwo-phase rollout is intended to improve game flow, enhance officiating accuracyBy Dan Daley, Audio ...
18/11/2025
Platinum White Paper: How Aggreko Delivers Certainty For Broadcasters On The Wor...
18/11/2025
Kiswe Extends DTC Products With Kiswe Core Cloud-Based Tool for Distributing Con...
18/11/2025
Spanish Basketball Federation partners with ScorePlay to power digital transform...
18/11/2025
HBS selects BBright encoders and decoders to connect ST 2110 live production wor...
18/11/2025
Ashes to Ashes: Inside TNT Sports' hybrid and maverick' production plan...
18/11/2025
SVG All-Stars: Mimi Fotopoulos, Director, Talent and Production Operations, Tenn...
18/11/2025
SVG LIVE! Conference Explores the Tech Side of Sports and Entertainment ConvergenceLive sports and music productions increasingly share gear and infrastructureB...
If you've read the other two blogs in this series, you'll be fully up to speed. If not, you can catch up on the human motivations of a pirate and a deep dive into the pirate ecosystem and economy. 
