Man and two firms in S’pore charged over alleged sale of devices providing illegal streaming services

SINGAPORE: A man was hauled to court on March 26 and accused of infringing the copyright of works owned by organisations including Disney, Netflix and the Football Association Premier League.

The alleged offences of the accused, Ge Xin, are linked to shows such as Raya And The Last Dragon and the broadcasts of Premier League football matches, including one between Liverpool and Manchester City.

He is said to have offered for sale streaming devices that could allow users to unlawfully gain access to such copyrighted works.

The 36-year-old Singaporean, who is a director and shareholder of multiple firms, was handed 24 charges under the Copyright Act.

A search with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) reveals that Ge has stakes in firms including MT Gadget+, Modern Tech and Gepower Technology.

Twelve of his charges are linked to MT Gadget+, while the other 12 are said to involve another firm called Grandnew. On March 26, the two companies were also charged with offences under the Copyright Act.

The Acra search did not disclose Ge’s role in Grandnew.

At the time of the alleged offences, the firms were located at Sim Lim Square shopping mall in Rochor Canal Road.

Among other things, Ge was an officer at MT Gadget+ when he allegedly offered for sale a device known as M18, installed with a computer program called Cloud TV.

Customers could use it to gain access to multiple broadcast Premier League matches.

Similarly, Ge is said to have offered for sale a device known as Global AI TV Media Player, installed with a computer program called 3FNF VOD, when he was an officer at Grandnew.

Court documents stated that customers could use it to gain access to a Netflix show called The Adam Project.

Ge’s alleged offences came to light after Criminal Investigation Department officers conducted raids at several shops at Sim Lim Square on Oct 4, 2022.

In a statement on March 26, the police said that officers seized more than 400 sets of illegal streaming devices from two shops that he operated at the time.

The pre-trial conferences for Ge and the two firms will be held on May 8.

For each charge under the Copyright Act, an offender can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to S$100,000 (RM351,033). A company can be fined up to S$200,000 (RM702,192) for each charge. – The Straits Times (Singapore)/Asia News Network