Vanguard Magazine

32 DECEMBER 2019/JANUARY 2020 www.vanguardcanada.com CYBER warfare, it has to be plausibly deniable, es- pecially since the U.S. is the top military backer of the Saudi regime, and the U.S. just happens to have this annoying habit of respecting intellectual property rights and not being too keen on governments that engage in state-supported content theft. In fact, the most recent U.S. Trade Representative's Special 301 report on Intellectual Property demoted Saudi Ara- bia to the Priority Watch List (almost the worst category of IP offender) and had this to say about the pirate enterprise that has been created, interestingly called (in- stead of BeIN) BeoutQ: "BeoutQ, an illicit service for pirated con- tent whose signal is reportedly(emphasis added) carried by Saudi Arabia-based satellite provider Arabsat, continues to be widely available in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Middle East and Europe… While Saudi officials have confirmed the illegal nature of BeoutQ's activities and claim to be addressing this issue by seizing BeoutQ set-top boxes, such devices never- theless continue to be widely available and are generally unregulated in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia also has not taken sufficient steps to address the purported (emphasis added) role of Arabsat in facilitating Be- outQ's piracy activities." Oh, and Arabsat, owned by the Arab League (with the Saudi government as the dominant shareholder), is headquar- tered in Riyadh. If BeIN Sports and Qatar are not happy about the current state of affairs involving widespread content piracy by BeoutQ, the same can be said for the sports leagues who are concerned that one of their best customers has lost a large chunk of its market to a rogue operation. In June of this year, BeIN Sports laid off 300 staff in Qatar, a fifth of its Qatar-based work- force, citing a drop in profits as a result of Saudi piracy. Last month, FIFA, in con- junction with a number of professional football leagues, released an investigative report into the operation of BeoutQ. The press release issued by FIFA and its part- ners stated that: "The report confirms without question that BeoutQ's pirate broadcasts have been transmitted using satellite infrastructure owned and operated by Arabsat." The full 158 page report "BeoutQ In- vestigation," went into chapter and verse to show exactly how, where and when Arabsat carried BeoutQ's ten channels. It also detailed how the BeoutQ set-top boxes (manufactured in China) were activated by a geo-located signal from Arabsat. The signal is largely restricted through technical means to the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia. The BeIN signal is pirated with the BeoutQ logo The press release issued by FIFA and its partners stated that: "The report confirms without question that BeoutQ's pirate broadcasts have been transmitted using satellite infrastructure owned and operated by Arabsat."

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