Volia claims victory in piracy case

Ukraine’s leading cable operator Volia has claimed a victory in its ongoing battle against piracy with the sentencing of an individual to three years imprisonment, a rare conviction in a country where content theft is widespread.

The Ivano-Frankivsk District Court of Lviv in western Ukraine sentenced the unnamed individual for organising an illegal pirate network in the city of Lviv. The sentenced individual created a client base by charging people for unauthorised connection to a network of receivers and illegally rerouting a transmitted signal to make it available to them.

According to Volia, willingness among Ukrainians to pay for quality content is increasing, with surveys showing that 30% are now willing to pay for a service, compared with 13% only a year ago.

“Piracy is currently a big problem for Ukraine, and we can be really glad that the fight against it in the telecommunications field has started at the state level. Law enforcement agencies are more proactive in tackling illicit cable networks and connections. And from next year, Ukraine will take another step in this direction – from January 20 it will not be permissible to illegally receive televison broadcasts of Ukrainian TV channels by satellite,” said Zhanna Kitaeva, CFO of Volia .

“Our company operates in the legal environment and pursues a policy of distributing legal content and counteraction against pirates. In cities where the activity of specialists in illegal connections is discovered, we conduct a network audit, which allows us to detect interference with our system. It is also welcome when the subscribers themselves inform the provider about the facts of illegal connections, because they deteriorate the quality of services due to theft of the signal. The problem of piracy must be overcome globally.”