Bell, Rogers and TV creators triumph over pirates

A consortium of broadcasters and rights-holders have won an opening salvo of a fight against a television pirate in the Federal Court. BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. were joined in the court action by Columbia Pictures Industries Inc., Disney Enterprises Inc., Paramount Pictures Corp., Universal City Studios LLC, Universal City Studios Productions LLLP and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. The defendants were Marshall Macciacchera, his father Antonio Macciacchera, both doing business as Smoothstreams.TV (SSTV), Arm Hosting Inc., Star Hosting Ltd. of Hong Kong, Roma Works Ltd. of Hong Kong, and Roma Works SA of Panama. In June the media partners launched a lawsuit against the Macciaccheras and their companies, alleging that signals were being pirated by SSTV. On June 28, the Federal Court issued an interim injunction ordering the defendants to turn over control of the SSTV infrastructure to an independent supervising solicitor, who would in turn shut down the company. Another section of the injunction provides for the search, seizure and preservation of evidence and equipment related to SSTV and of financial information about the defendants’ assets. The plaintiffs were to file their motions by July 22. The defendants had until July 26 to reply. The hearing was held on July 26. “While the defendants have not yet had an opportunity to cross-examine the deponents and the plaintiffs’ affidavit evidence is untested, the material before me establishes an extremely strong prima facie case of copyright infringement against the defendants,” Justice Roger Lafrenière wrote in his July 28 decision. The judge noted that unauthorized subscription services either obtain content from legitimate sources and then retransmit it without permission or by sourcing the content from illegitimate sources. They then sell access to customers for a fraction of the price conventional broadcasters do, typically US$10 to US$15 per month. “However, content piracy is not a victimless crime,” Lafrenière stated. “The deleterious impact of such acts of copyright infringement cannot be understated.” He cited several other cases of piracy which have appeared in the courts over the past few years. One case he did not mention was that of GoldTV.biz, which had its site blocked earlier this year through a court proceeding. “The plaintiffs appear to be drawn into an endless game of whack-a-mole to try to prevent the online theft of their copyrighted content by disparate actors who seek to take advantage of any vacuum created in the illicit market by the plaintiffs’ efforts,” the judge concluded. Antonio Macciacchera refused to read the interim order against him when it was served on him. The plaintiffs were granted a motion to hold him in contempt. He will face the charges on Aug. 17. His son Marshall complied with only some portions of the interim order. An investigation of his premises showed evidence of a sophisticated enterprise, including receivers, encoders and servers. Lafrenière quoted from SSTV’s Twitter feed in which clients lamented the shutdown of services. “These tweets suggest that there has been a substantial period of infringement and that the subscribers knew full well that they were enabling the theft of the plaintiffs’ rights,” the judge wrote. A hearing on other aspects of the suit will be held on Aug. 18. Cross-examination by the defendants is to be finished by Aug. 5 with the plaintiffs filing any amendments by Aug. 10. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Bell, Rogers and TV creators triumph over pirates

Broadcast | August 3, 2022

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Bell, Rogers and TV creators triumph over pirates

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