Taiwan Police Bust Ring Selling Illegally Modified Japanese B-CAS Cards; Four Referred to Prosecutors, Infringed Content Valued Over NT$600 Million
Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on October 13 that police have busted a ring selling illegally modified Japanese B-CAS cards, referring four men, including a satellite broadcast equipment vendor, to the Taichung District Prosecutors Office on suspicion of violating the Copyright Act and forging documents.
B-CAS cards are the access cards used for Japanese satellite broadcasting. According to the CIB's Intellectual Property Rights Investigation Brigade, the vendor advertised that buyers could "watch all BS channels for free, with no watermark on the NHK screen", and had been selling modified B-CAS cards imported from mainland China over the internet for more than three years. The group illicitly obtained the satellite signals of six domestic and foreign broadcasters. Rights holders estimate the market value of the infringed content at more than NT$600 million.
Investigators discovered the illicit cards being sold online and asked Japan's B-CAS Co., the card issuer, to authenticate them; the cards were confirmed to have been illegally modified. Japan's Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) and Taiwan's Satellite Television Broadcasting Association were notified, and the two bodies filed complaints on behalf of the television stations.
In June this year, police raided the vendor's office in Taichung, seizing computers, 29 modified B-CAS cards, card adapters, satellite receivers and other evidence.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：日本卫星电视B-CAS接收卡。摄影：ZERBERUS，公有领域，来源：Wikimedia Commons
