Newest Export From China: Pirated Pay TV
China has become the hotbed of a new technology that distributes live television signals over the Internet, exposing the world's pay-TV operators to the kind of online piracy that has plagued the music and movie businesses.
The technology, called peer-to-peer, or P2P, streaming TV, enables viewers anywhere in the world to watch cable, satellite or broadcast TV on the Web free of charge. Pirate services offer the programs to anyone equipped with a high-speed Internet connection who downloads some simple software.
The most active of these services are based in China, where a rising number of people are using them to watch channels such as HBO, ESPN and MTV. Now, the practice is spreading to Europe, where users have begun tapping into the Chinese services to watch European soccer matches unavailable on their local TV channels. Much of the programming is in Chinese, but HBO, ESPN and some other Western cable channels offered on the mainland are in English with Chinese subtitles.
P2P streaming TV is the latest generation of peer-to-peer technology, which evolved as a way to swap music and video files over the Internet, as software maker Grokster Ltd. helped users to do. This new twist turns an ordinary computer receiving the TV channel into a rebroadcaster of video streams, feeding the next computer, which feeds the next. The signal, which is taken live off TV systems mostly in China, is delayed by about a minute before it shows up on computer screens in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media or RealNetworks Inc.'s Real Player program.
Underscoring the challenges for the law to keep up with technology and its global reach, P2P television is emerging barely two months after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the landmark Grokster file-sharing case, which was seen as a victory for traditional media companies. The court ruled that file-sharing companies may be liable for copyright infringement if their products encourage consumers to illegally swap songs and movies.
These new services already seem to have a following. A National Basketball Association game featuring star Yao Ming drew about 50,000 simultaneous peer-to-peer viewers on Coolstreaming, one of the P2P services, says Yang Yongqi, a vice president of engineering for Coolstreaming's owner, Roxbeam Media Network Corp. of Beijing. The free software, which Coolstreaming considers a test network for technology it aims to sell commercially, has been downloaded 1.5 million times, he says.
China's pay-TV market is small, but the global industry faces the risk that P2P streaming TV could catch on in the U.S., where cable revenue totaled $57.6 billion last year, while sales of satellite TV services generated $18.5 billion. The more high-speed Internet users, the bigger the threat to the industry.
Sports and media companies and associations are just waking up to the problem. To keep its games off limits, the NBA's Asian office says it has informed its 14 licensed Chinese TV broadcasters of the streaming systems and expects the broadcasters to find ways to stop violations. Officials of Roxbeam didn't respond to questions about the source of its Coolstreaming content, including HBO and ESPN, which the Chinese government bans from wide distribution.
A spokesman for Time Warner Inc.'s Time Warner Cable says that if live online cable piracy takes off in the U.S., "we would prosecute pirates under the full extent of the law." Cable-TV giant Comcast Corp. says it constantly monitors its networks for unauthorized use, and takes immediate action when it discovers breaches. Because the Asian pirates aren't getting their material from U.S. cable distributors, U.S. companies aren't taking action against them, they say.
Cable channel HBO Asia, whose greater-China feed is featured on many of the services, says it, too, is aware of the systems and "very vigilant about shutting them down" but it declined to give details. HBO Asia is a joint venture of Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Films, Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures Entertainment, Time Warner Entertainment and General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios. Representatives of Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN as well as ESPN Star, its Asian joint venture with News Corp., say they protect their rights vigorously but declined to comment on this particular situation.
So far, the Motion Picture Association of America, one of Hollywood's most aggressive piracy watchdogs, hasn't taken any action against Chinese peer-to-peer streaming networks. "We're in the process of investigating the technology and the structure," says Mike Ellis, the group's Asian-Pacific regional director.
Coolstreaming's site proudly displays the HBO and ESPN logos, and it recently promoted a feature starring Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman (though the promo didn't name the film). Yet the site carries a disclaimer stating "Coolstreaming.org honors the copyright of all video/audio programs." PPLive, another Chinese service, publishes a program guide on its Web site for viewers' convenience.
In May, England's F.A. Premier League began investigating reports that thousands of British soccer fans were using P2P systems to watch pirated broadcasts of live matches during a Saturday blackout period, which is designed to protect attendance at games. A German P2P system called Cybersky-TV, one of the first to use the technology, stopped distributing its streaming software after being slapped with a court injunction. Cybersky's Web site says it will release a U.S. version this month.
The genie is out of the bottle, says Eric Garland, chief executive officer of P2P consultants Big Champagne LLC, who believes programmers around the world are working on recreating the Chinese technology. American pirates could use the technology to stream feeds of U.S. channels, which could mean U.S. programming beamed free around the world.
Like Coolstreaming, PPLive didn't provide details about the origins of its video feed. A third Chinese service, SopCast, a student project at China's Fudan University, doesn't have a license for its content, says Zhou Qiang, a professor involved in running the service.
"We still have very small scale of operation, so no one is coming after us yet," Prof. Zhou says, adding that the whole system has supported 100,000 simultaneous users. "We're seeking the opportunity to legitimately rebroadcast [foreign channels] and would like to set up a system for that."
Some people do see potential legitimate business applications for the peer-to-peer streaming technology. For content providers without a widespread traditional platform such as cable TV, it offers a way to make users take on the expensive challenge of distribution. Some of the groups behind the technology say they already are working on ways to add digital-rights management to the systems, which could protect the owners of copyrights.
"Legal, licensed and protected streamed video via the Internet is potentially a future entertainment distribution model," says the MPAA's Mr. Ellis, "providing there can be developed secured methods to deliver it and protect the digital file from copyright theft."
Just ask MTV, one of the pirated channels. "We embrace new technologies," says a New York-based spokeswoman. "But we would want to figure out a way to get copyright holders paid for their content."
网络电视危及付费电视产业
通过互联网传播电视节目这种新技术在中国风靡起来，这使得全球付费电视业步音乐和电影产业的后尘、成为了互联网盗版现象侵扰的对象。
这种称为点对点数据流电视(P2P streaming TV)技术的应用能够让全球各地的观众通过互联网免费收看有线电视、卫星电视和广播电视。接收这样的节目很简单：只要具备高速上网条件、然后下载一些简单的软件即可。
互联网电视在中国尤其受到欢迎，有越来越多的中国人通过这种方式来收看HBO、ESPN、MTV等电视频道的节目。现在，这股热潮蔓延到了欧洲。欧洲的消费者开始利用中国的服务来收看在当地电视台上无法看到的欧洲足球比赛。中国的网络电视节目不少都是中文的，不过HBO、MTV等西方有线电视频道在中国提供的也都是英文节目，配有中文字幕。
点对点数据流电视是点对点技术的最新应用，软件开发商Grokster Ltd.开发出点对点技术是为了方便用户通过互联网互换影音文件。这种应用的出现使得一台接收电视信号的普通电脑成为向另一台电脑传播视频数据流的一个平台，接收数据的那台电脑又可以向另一台电脑传送信号，如此循环下去。接收之后，电视节目信号只需隔上一分钟便会出现在电脑屏幕上，用户只要安装了微软的Windows Media或RealNetworks Inc.的Real Player等软件就可观看这些节目。
互联网电视凸现出法律在应对科技进步带来的新问题这个方面所遇到的挑战。就在仅两个月之前，美国的最高法院对具有里程碑意义的Grokster文件共享案作出了裁决，传统媒体公司赢得了这场官司。最高法院认为，如果他们的产品鼓励用户非法交换影音文件，文件共享公司就可能要为涉及到的侵犯知识产权行为负责。
Coolstreaming的开发商酷流（北京）科技发展有限公司(Roxbeam Media Network Corp.)的副总裁杨永齐(音)表示，有中国篮球巨星姚明参加的一场美国篮球协会(NBA)篮球比赛吸引了约5万名用户使用该公司提供的服务同时在线观看。他表示，公司正在对免费下载的Coolstreaming软件进行测试，希望最终能把它推向商业化。据他透露，Coolstreaming软件已经被下载了150万次。
杨永齐表示，这项新技术能在中国发展起来部分是因为许多年轻的技术开发人员往来密切，他们往往在大学校园时就是密友。中国有关互联网盗版行为的法律比较宽松也是原因之一。中国政府本月将采取一系列措施来打击网络侵权行为，但不清楚中国政府是否会把对付费电视行业构成新威胁的网络电视列入查处范围。
中国的付费电视市场规模较小，但全球付费电视行业正面临著网络电视将风靡美国的风险，而付费电视在美国可是个大产业，全美去年的有线电视收入高达576亿美元，而卫星电视的销售额为185亿美元。上网速度越快的用户接收到的图像质量就越高，对付费电视产业的威胁也就越大。
体育和传媒界的公司和协会刚刚意识到这个问题的严重性。为了保护自己的权益，NBA亚洲办事处表示，已经把网络电视的事情告知了14家得到转播授权的中国电视广播运营商，并希望他们能采取防范措施。酷流（北京）科技发展有限公司的管理人士拒绝回答记者有关Coolstreaming节目内容来源的询问。
HBO和ESPN的标识出现在Coolstreaming网站的显著位置上。网站上还有一则免责申明，称所有影音内容均由内容、服务提供商提供。Coolstreaming近期推出了一个由本?艾弗莱克(Ben Affleck)和乌玛?瑟曼(Uma Thurman)联袂出演的节目。而另一家中国的网络电视服务商PPLive为了便于用户观看，还在其网站上刊登了一个电视节目收视指南。
今年5月，英超联赛开始调查数以千计的英国球迷使用P2P系统收看盗版的周六英超赛事的事件，而这些赛事为了确保上座率是不进行现场直播的。德国Cybersky-TV是最早使用P2P这种技术的网站之一。但在法院发出禁止令之后，Cybersky-TV已经停止传播其流媒体播放软件。Cybersky的网站表示，将在本月向美国推出流媒体播放软件。
近年来，美国有线电视行业运用数字加密等手段来防范盗用信号的行为。但数字技术无法防范上述利用P2P技术的盗版行为，原因是电视信号被个人电脑进行了重新编码。在一些电视迷看来，使用来历不明的技术、收看盗版电视节目并没有什么可耻的。
P2P咨询公司Big Champagne LLC的首席执行长埃里克?加兰德(Eric Garland)形容网络电视技术时说，魔鬼已经从瓶子里钻出来了。他认为，全世界的程序开发人员都在中国网络电视技术的基础上添砖加瓦。美国的程序员可能用这项技术把国内的频道做成数据流来源向外传播，而不是去观看中国的节目。这意味著全球的用户都能免费收看到美国的电视节目。 时代华纳旗下子公司Time Warner Cable的发言人表示，如果网络电视盗版现象在美国猖獗起来，"我们将充分利用法律的武器来追究盗版者的责任。"有线电视频道HBO Asia表示，已经意识到了网络电视的危害，并密切关注著对网络电视盗版现象的整顿。沃尔特-迪斯尼公司(Walt Disney Co., DIS)旗下的ESPN和ESPN Star表示，他们将积极捍卫自己的权益。
目前为止，高举反盗版旗帜的监管机构美国电影协会(Motion Picture Association of America, 简称MPAA)并未对中国的P2P网络电视采取任何行动。该组织的亚太主席艾理善(Mike Ellis)表示，他们正在调查这项技术及其结构。
与Coolstreaming一样，PPLive也没有提供视频内容的具体来源。SopCast是一个在复旦大学内部面向学生们推出的另一个网络电视服务。据周强教授介绍说，SopCast的内容没有得到授权。
周强表示，他们提供的网络电视服务只涉及很小的范围，因此没有人来找过他们。他表示，SopCast最多可支持10万人同时观看。"我们希望获得合法转播外国频道电视节目的机会，准备为外文节目专门建立起一个系统。"
一些人士认为，P2P数据流技术可以在一些商业应用领域取得合法的地位。例如，那些不具备有线电视等传统平台的内容供应商可以用这种技术为用户提供一个廉价的分销平台，进而获得与传统内容供应商分庭抗礼的机会。一些支持P2P技术的人士表示，他们正在研究为这种技术增加数码知识产权管理的途径。
MPAA的艾理善表示，合法的、得到授权的视频数据通过网络传播有望在将来成为一种娱乐传播模式，前提是能够找到可以保护数字内容免受盗版行为侵害的安全的传输途径。
