Iran’s state TV broadcaster IRIB3 has been broadcasting video content downloaded from well-known blocked movie websites, according to a new report.
The movie, “Saving General Yang”, was supposedly broadcast by the TV station last week, according to the website Caffe Cinema.
Several viewers noticed that aside from the IRIB TV3 logo in the top right corner, there was another watermark at the bottom. This read Tinymoviez.co, which is a popular site among people downloading pirated copies of movies and TV shows. The illegal screening, according to international copyright laws, is not the first incident where the national broadcaster has been caught showing non-purchased content. According to ISNA, other popular American movies have also been shown with watermarks of the downloaded sites, including Django Unchained.
Since 2001, Iran has been a member of World Intellectual Property Organization and has acceded to several WIPO treaties. However, the Iranian government never signed the WIPO copyright treaty and other international copyright agreements that would make copying of foreign products unlawful. Hence, at present, the country has nothing to worry about.
