Roku says they have succeeded in a company wide effort to distance their streaming devices from the tricky issue of piracy, an issue that has already caused damage when the company's devices were banned for sale in Mexico due to its piracy links.
Roku devices support channels created by third parties that can host the streaming of many kinds of content. These include legal channels such as Netflix and HBO, and also includes channels made by pirates to host pirated content.
In Mexico, it was estimated at one point that 40% of all Roku users used the device to access pirated content, which eventually led to the devices being banned from sale in the country.
With Hollywood also focusing on streaming piracy as its next battlefield in the war against piracy, Roku decided then to take matters into their own hands and take on the pirates who they feel have corrupted their platform. Since then, Roku has set up an in-house anti-piracy team, implemented anti-piracy measures and removed more than 400 piracy related organisations and their associated channels from their platform.
While these actions have caused some collateral damage, Roku is now claiming their efforts have been a success and that now, 99.5% of all "streaming hours" are for legal channels. The same figure is a bit lower in Mexico, 92%, but Roku says even this number will rise in the short term due to their ongoing actions.
Roku's VP of trust engineering, Gary Ellison, says that Roku's anti-piracy actions are ultimately a good move for the company.
"Piracy hurts our business and the industry. We continue to devote considerable resources to fighting piracy by continuously improving our software, tools and detection methods to remove pirates from our platform," says Ellison.
"The data we are releasing today shows the effectiveness of our anti-piracy efforts. It is a top priority to ensure that our platform is closed for pirates and good for consumers."
[via TorrentFreak]
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