TVA, Bell Media take down illegal sports streaming website

Quebecor Inc.’s TVA division and BCE Inc.’s media subsidiary have shut down a website that was pirating the TVA Sports and RDS sports channels. The companies said in a press release Friday that they seized computer equipment from those that were operating an illegal streaming site whose pirated streams included content from the two channels. TVA spokeswoman Véronique Mercier said in a phone interview that the two companies obtained an injunction from Quebec’s Superior Court allowing them to seize computer equipment from individuals running the website, which led to the shutting down of the site. When accessed Friday afternoon, the website for the service, called La Griffe Sportive, contained only a notice stating that the site had been offering illegal streaming content and that piracy is a crime. Mercier said the next step “is to analyze the damage” caused by the three individuals who pirated the content, and “to determine what the legal measures will be and the consequences they will have to face.” She added the company would be “communicating with” the individuals who viewed the site. When asked what form that communication would take, and whether it would include copyright infringement notices, Mercier said the company is “working on that at this moment.” The notice-and-notice system, which requires Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to forward copyright infringement notices to their customers, came into effect in January 2015. “But we do want to make sure the 20,000 members know that this was an illegal practice and we want this type of action to end,” she said. That 20,000 figure compares to the 3,000 to 50,000 viewers Rogers Communications Inc. said a year ago it was getting for games on its GameCentre Live hockey streaming service. She said the company wants those viewers to know that by going to pirated websites, they’re making the companies that paid for those rights “lose a lot of money.” Mercier said La Griffe Sportive was the biggest website of its kind the company was aware of. “We want to make a statement today that we will not let this type of website be created and we won’t allow pirating of the signals,” she said. The raids took place in LaSalle, Laval and Chicoutimi, Que., the press release specified. The Wire Report reported about a year ago that the extent of piracy of television content remains unclear. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca

TVA, Bell Media take down illegal sports streaming website

Broadcast | February 5, 2016

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TVA, Bell Media take down illegal sports streaming website

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