Illegal Streaming Devices Become 'Piracy 3.0'

The spread of illegal streaming devices with pre-installed applications that give illegal access to content signify the piracy 3.0 era, Stan McCoy, President, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said Thursday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) — According to McCoy, the users could buy a device that could be bought on a major online marketplace and included pre-installed software or applications that provided illegal access to content.

"Piracy is not a static challenge… If you think of old-fashioned peer-to-peer piracy as 1.0, and then online illegal streaming websites as 2.0, in the audio-visual sector, in particular, we now face challenge number 3.0, which is what I'll call the challenge of illegal streaming devices," McCoy said.

The representative of the MPAA said that this type of piracy was not particularly widespread in Russia yet but had taken on epidemic proportions in other countries.

SPIEF kicked off in Russia's second largest city earlier in the day and will continue until Saturday. The event brought together politicians, business people and experts in various fields from different countries. Sputnik News Agency is an official media partner of the forum.