Mexico. A few days ago, Federal Judges in Mexico City and Torreón decided to keep in force the ban on the import, marketing and distribution of Roku in Mexico. Roku is a content aggregator device through which users can access different content services (Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, Fox, among others) on a single device.
In the world, Roku is a well-known brand and has been very successful, however, in Mexico (for a change) it began to be given a different use. The operating system of the device was modified and in exchange for a monthly consideration, access to the content of many platforms is allowed illegally.
Given the above, at the beginning of 2017 Cablevisión filed a civil lawsuit against various individuals and the company Latamel Distribuidora, for the theft (marketing and reproduction of signals without authorization) of its contents. In May of the same year, the 38th Civil Judge of Mexico City (CDMX) issued a ban on the import and sale of the Roku device in Mexico.
An attempt has been made to revoke this decision by Roku (manufacturer of the equipment), Latamel Distribuidora (Importer and Official Distributor), as well as by different department stores which are the ones that sell the product.
Parallel to these actions, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) has been blocking internet addresses that are used to configure and distribute illegal content on devices.
The high point of this discussion is whether the company that manufactures the product should be held responsible for the misuse of it by a third party. Logic would suggest that no, however, in Mexico and the world there are other similar devices which are not affected by this type of illegal activities because their operating systems are constantly being protected by the companies that manufacture them precisely to avoid this type of situation.
According to a study by The Competitive Intelligence Unit, which tracks the Restricted Television and Audio Services (STAR) market, Roku has 1.1 million users in the country, of which 40% use it to watch content illegally. There are 575,000 users who access illegal content (there are not a few) and that could well be the number of subscribers of a small Restricted TV operator.
Although for some these types of actions seem radical, it seems very important to me that the migration we are experiencing towards the digital (music, films, photographs, etc.) is accompanied by its respective component of protection of copyright and intellectual property in order to continue promoting innovation and the generation of a healthy competitive environment in the virtual world.
Text written by Gonzalo Rojon of The Competitive Intelligence Unit.
