Many People Watching Olympics Illegally 安博盒子看奧運 引發收看盜版爭議

The Olympics are currently taking place and many people are watching live broadcasts and cheering on Chinese Taipei's athletes. Some of them, including celebrities and politicians, are using set-top boxes to watch broadcasts illegally. The National Communications Commission and Intellectual Property Office say manufacturing, importing, and selling set-top boxes that violate property rights are illegal.
 

Many people are following the Olympics. Some of them are watching using set-top boxes. Entertainer Blackie Chen and his wife posted online about this and were accused of watching pirated content. ELTA, which is one of the broadcasters airing the Olympics, criticized this type of behavior in a Facebook post. The number of cases involving set-top boxes and infringement has risen during the past several years.

Chuang Ming-hsiung, Captain, 1st Corps, Electronic Surveillance Div., CIB："We discovered during the Universiade that sports channels such as ELTA were frequently misappropriated. Regarding these signals, these set-top boxes connect to the Internet and use foreign or Taiwanese IP addresses or satellites to intercept signals at the source. This is actually very high-tech criminal behavior."

The Criminal Investigation Bureau says illegal dealers often crack legal signals and then transmit them to illegal set-top boxes for viewing. Many of them advertise free viewing of foreign and domestic TV shows, movies, and dramas. They may also sell "pure" set-top boxes, and then have consumers download an app to use them. The National Communications Commission and Intellectual Property Office say this behavior may be illegal.

Voice of Niu Hsin-jen, Dep. Director, Dept. of Frequency and Resources, NCC："We inspected 118 models, of which 65 have been abolished. The ones we inspected that met standards are not illegal but selling illegal set-top boxes violates laws."

Voice of Mao Hao-chi, Director, Copyright Division, Intellectual Property Office："They put the kind of program that collects illegal video and audio links or apps to binge-watch into the inside of the set-top box. The method you use to download the app will tell you whether the set-top box is legal or illegal."

The NCC said legal set-top boxes need to go through approval. It has a list of illegal ones online for the reference of the public. The Intellectual Property Office says under the Copyright Act, making, importing, or selling set-top boxes with pirated content is punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of NT$500,000. The public is urged not to use illegal set-top boxes to support legality and avoid other risks such as viewing quality or personal information leakage.

東京奧運掀起一波觀賽熱潮，不少民眾會使用機上盒收看，藝人陳建州夫妻也PO文支持，結果卻掀起「看盜版」爭議，轉播單位之一的愛爾達，在官方臉書更發文痛批這種行為。但類似的非法機上盒侵權案件，近年來有逐漸升溫趨勢。

刑事局電偵大隊第一隊長 莊明雄表示：「世大運的時候，就發現在愛爾達，或一些運動頻道，有被頻繁盜用，這些訊號的一個情況。它們這些機上盒，都是接上網路，那透過境外的IP連線，所有的訊號源，其實也會利用台灣，或者用一些衛星的方式，來做截取，其實是滿高科技的一個犯罪方法。」

刑事局指出，這些非法業者，通常是破解合法訊號，再傳輸到非法機上盒給觀眾，而且大多標榜能免費看國內外各大電視、電影、戲劇；或是販售「純淨」的機上盒，再由消費者下載App軟體使用，但NCC和智慧局提醒，這些可能都違法。

NCC射頻與資源管理處 副處長 牛信仁表示：「（抽查)總共有118款，那目前有廢止65款，本會審驗合格機上盒的話，是機器本身是不違法，不合格的機上盒，如果販售的話是違法的。」

智慧財產局著作權組 組長 毛浩吉表示：「匯集非法影音連結的這種程式，追劇神器的這種App，把它放到它的機上盒裡頭去，提供的，引導你去下載這個App的這個路徑，它就可以知道說，它賣的機上盒，到底是合法機上盒，還是非法機上盒。」

NCC表示，合法機上盒必須通過認證，至於不合法商品也都PO在網路上，民眾如果不清楚，可以上網查詢；智慧局也說，依照著作權法，製造、輸入或銷售有侵權內容的機上盒，最重可處兩年以下徒刑、50萬罰金，呼籲民眾不要使用非法機上盒，在支持合法同時，也能避免收視品質、和個資外洩等其他風險。