US pressures to ban pirated TV Box, but China prefers to “leave it low” – APK Games

The United States has been pressuring China to end piracy from Asia. That’s because a TV Box considered illegal gained so much space in Taiwan that even great figures from there were seen using it. Despite the complaints, the Chinese authorities prefer to put the matter aside.

A few years ago, the United States Trade Representative (United States Trade Representative or USTR), the US foreign trade agency, described the piracy situation in Taiwan as “rampant.”

The agency, however, came to applaud the amendments to the local copyright law that criminalized illegal broadcasting services, as well as the import and manufacture of devices that contributed to the growth of piracy.

Even so, as pointed the TorrentFreakabout 30% of the Taiwanese population has had a TV Box since 2020. Among this large market, the devices Ubox were the main protagonists.

Presented as an easy-to-buy and use device, even public figures such as Taiwanese politicians and businessmen, were caught taking advantage of it to watch the 2021 Olympic Games.

manufactured by unblocktech in China, the devices have a variation of Android TV, offering access to a large amount of movies, series and live channels without charging a fee for doing so.

The company, of course, gained such visibility in the face of free advertising and challenged the applicability of the law that criminalized this type of business.

China appears not to be interested in the case.

Who did not like this growth was the United States, which annually highlights countries violating its standards of copyright protection — among them, China.

On a extensive documenta Hollywood group wrote directly to USTR:

China is the leading source for manufacturing and exporting devices that allow installation of infringing third-party apps […]. This illegal business practice allows consumers to access pirated content.

Many of the illegal IPTV services shipped all over the world are pre-installed on devices that come from China. Because of some judges’ understanding of the “server principle” […]rights holders were left without a remedy [uma solução] or, at best, with an uncertain remedy.

The “server principle” described by the group says that infringement only exists when pirated content is hosted on a physical server under the control of the application’s operator.

In other words, Chinese authorities are only concerned when such a crime occurs within their territory.

For now, the manufacturer of Ubox has been selling the product in its “pure” state, that is, without the pre-installed movies, series or live channels.

This, of course, shows an attempt to adapt to Taiwanese laws, after all if they are without pirated content, they are able to trade in Taiwan — although the complete device is available worldwide.

With information: TorrentFreak