OSN is fighting piracy of its content. Sarah Dea / The National
OSN is fighting piracy of its content. Sarah Dea / The National
OSN is fighting piracy of its content. Sarah Dea / The National
OSN is fighting piracy of its content. Sarah Dea / The National

Courts

Abu Dhabi Police arrest three people in clampdown on TV piracy

Officers raid three outlets and seize 202 devices in the capital

The National

October 04, 2020

  • English
  • Arabic

Abu Dhabi Police arrested three people and raided several shops in a sweeping campaign against TV piracy.

Officers closed three outlets in raids on electronic shops on Electra Street and confiscated 202 devices.

It came after a complaint from service provider OSN of piracy at some shops.

Electra Street, known formally as Zayed the First Street, is known for its teeming network of small outlets selling legal electronics, satellite dishes and TVs. But authorities have found some shops flouting the law before.

"Piracy is causing enormous losses for the entertainment industry, the authorities and the end users," said Hanif Khan, director of anti-piracy and content security at OSN.

"Two out of these three stores had been raided before and that means people can expect much harsher punishments and punitive fines if they continue to participate in these damaging activities.

“We still have a long way to go to reduce piracy in the region."

According to OSN, piracy costs the entertainment industry in the Mena region up to $750 million every year, an amount that has increased owing to restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company said it noticed a surge in downloads of pirate applications being used to view its content and channels illegally.

OSN said this year alone it removed more than 380,000 links for pirated content online, conducted 43 raids across the region and confiscated thousands of boxes along with illegal cards.

Teams from OSN supported police during the raid, which took place this month.

Abu Dhabi Police said it was committed to eradicating piracy and urged the public to use only authorised distributors to avoid commercial fraud.

Why it pays to compare

A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.

Route 1: bank transfer

The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.

Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount

Total received: €4,670.30 

Route 2: online platform

The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.

Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction

Total received: €4,756

The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.

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Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.

The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.

These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.

“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.

“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.

“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.

“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”

Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.

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