Shop owner referred to prosecutor over satellite TV piracy devices

AMMAN — The National Library Department (NLD) on Wednesday said it referred a shop owner to the prosecutor general for selling receivers that decrypt paid satellite TV channels "to enable customers to watch porn and sports channels for free".

“We confiscated around 300 receivers from the store worth $20,000. These receivers were imported from China, and the owner of the store tampered with these devices to automatically decrypt paid porn and sports channels,” NLD Director General Mohammad Abbadi told The Jordan Times.

The receivers were being sold at around JD50 each at the store in Amman, said Abbadi, adding that the NLD staff, in cooperation with Criminal Investigation Department personnel, raided the store.

“This is in violation of the law. No store is allowed to sell such receivers or use any technology to decode paid channels to enable people to watch them for free,” he added.

"Demand on such receivers is high… We will soon start a campaign to crack down on all stores selling them,” the official said.

Selling devices that decrypt paid TV channels is in violations of Article 55 of the Copyright Law, which prohibits the manufacturing, designing or selling of any device or technology that uses decoding to provide services. 

The Copyright Law stipulates that it is a crime to download software, music or movies that are protected under the legislation.

The legislation also prohibits the alteration of technological safeguards for the unlicensed commercial use of a protected product, particularly satellite feeds. Offenders face a prison sentence of between three months and three years and a fine ranging from JD1,000 to JD6,000.