DStv owner MultiChoice recently told MyBroadband that it has been actively advocating for law reforms to combat illegal streaming websites through multiple submissions to government.
South African internet service providers (ISPs) can only monitor customer internet traffic under certain circumstances, meaning they are largely unable to help MultiChoice in the fight against streaming piracy in the country.
DStv owner MultiChoice has been cracking down on streaming piracy in South Africa, with the pay-TV channel making a series of related arrests in recent months.
This may have caused many residents of the country to worry about whether their ISPs are monitoring their traffic.
However, this would require significant legal changes and place a heavy administrative burden on ISPs to monitor for potentially infringing traffic.
Given that ISPs have to operate on thin margins and dedicate all available staff and capital to delivering high-quality customer service, this would be a waste of money for them.
According to the Internet Service Providers Association of South Africa (ISPA), several laws govern how ISPs must run their business.
The legislation includes communications interception and monitoring laws that prohibit ISPs from intercepting and monitoring subscribers’ usage without lawful justification. They must also comply with the Personal Data Protection Act.
“They are obliged to ensure that any collection and processing of personal information is done lawfully in accordance with the provisions of POPIA,” ISPA said.
However, it added that ISPs must collect and store customer data and make it available to law enforcement agencies upon request.
“This is very different from collecting and storing customer communications, which is not done,” the company said.
The Cybercrimes Act and other legislation do not require ISPs to monitor the data they transmit or store, or to actively look for unlawful activity.
“ISPs are not required by law to monitor their networks and services,” ISPA said.
However, ISPs must assist law enforcement in tackling gender-based violence in the country.
“Recent changes to the Domestic Violence Act require ISPs to remove online material constituting domestic violence and provide information about alleged perpetrators,” ISPA said.
“Similarly, ISPs are required to provide information to the courts about people alleged to have engaged in harassment or failure to pay maintenance.”
Where there is interaction between ISPs and law enforcement, it is highly regulated.
MyBroadband asked Afrihost, RSAWeb and Webafrica for feedback on their respective approaches to internet piracy in South Africa, but they had not responded to our questions by publication.
Crackdown on DStv streaming piracy
MultiChoice has tackled streaming piracy in South Africa after arresting several players involved in illegal streaming services in recent months.
Additionally, Frikkie Jonker, director of anti-piracy for broadcast and cybersecurity at MultiChoice-owned Irdeto, said the company could soon target consumers of pirated streaming services.
He warned that MultiChoice will consider legal action against them once criminal proceedings against operators are completed.
“We are going after the entire ecosystem,” says Jonker.
MultiChoice’s recent arrests include individuals who allegedly distributed pirate streaming devices and credentials for platforms like Waka TV.
Once these cases are concluded, the broadcaster can prosecute those who paid for and used such services.
“When we reach the point where the criminal proceedings are completed, we will know who the users of these illegal services are, and we will consider going after them as well,” he said.
“We as MultiChoice can then take civil proceedings and even criminal action against these people.”
Jonker also explained how broadcaster DStv identifies and closes accounts linked to illegal streaming services.
“We have identification tools that we can use to analyze a flow of a pirate operation. By analyzing it, we can say that the stream is using account number ‘123′, and then we delete that account,” he said.
