No police referral in News Corp piracy claims

Australia is not investigating a newspaper's report accusing Rupert Murdoch's News Corp of being involved in a piracy plot to damage the business of three rival pay-TV firms in the country, officials said today.

News Corp has been accused of setting up a secret unit via a subsidiary company called NDS which is alleged to have pirated copies of its rivals' smart cards.

The Australian Financial Review (AFR) yesterday in a report said, "a secret unit within Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation promoted a wave of high-tech piracy in Australia that damaged Austar, Optus and Foxtel at a time when News was moving to take control of the Australian pay TV industry."

Commenting on the report that appeared in AFR, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the government had not been in touch with police but suggested the paper do so.

Conroy said the allegations are serious and called for them to be referred to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

"These are serious allegations, and any allegations of criminal activity should be referred to the AFP for investigation," a spokeswoman for Senator Conroy said.

"We have not referred anything to the federal police and the federal police have already said publicly that they have not received a referral.

Treasurer Wayne Swan said he was "not sure how accurate" the article was but "obviously it's concerning, We'll see how it plays out."

News Corp has denied promoting piracy or sabotaging the commercial interests of its rivals.

According to Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) spokesman "at this stage" the media watchdog was not investigating the allegations.

He said the pay TV industry had its own code of practice established under a co-regulatory regime. ACMA monitors content but not issues such as piracy, the spokesman said.

The AFR claimed that it was a four-year investigation and it was revealed a global trail of corporate dirty tricks directed against competitors by a secretive group of former policemen and intelligence officers within News Corp known as Operational Security.

The newspaper released 14,400 emails relating to the activities of NDS.

It was alleged that the piracy had damaged local pay TV players  including  Austar and Foxtel, which is 25% owned by News Ltd, the Australian arm of News Corp.