Quebecor has chalked up another win in its fight against piracy with a Federal Court decision sanctioning two Québec City companies.
Technologies Konek and Coopérative de câblodistribution Hill Valley have been found to have infringed on TVA Group’s copyright by illegally redistributing the TVA and TVA Sports channels.
According to Quebecor’s court filing, Konek was behind the design of the so-called “Konek box” which allowed hotel room TVs to perform a variety of functions, including retransmit television channels.
Quebecor says it became aware of Konek’s activities in early 2020 when some of its Videotron hotel clients terminated their contracts to do business with the Québec City-based company, which was redistributing TVA Group channels, to which it held no rights.
“Quebecor takes piracy very seriously and will continue identifying resellers and taking all necessary legal action to protect the rights of subsidiaries actively engaged in creating and redistributing content, for the benefit of its cultural workers,” the company stated in a release. “Piracy and content theft cannot be condoned if cultural industries are to thrive. Such illegal appropriation causes losses in the millions of dollars and jeopardizes the entire content creation chain.”
IT consultant, Libéo, which was involved in the early design of the Konek box and was also named as a defendant in the case, was found not liable for copyright infringement.
In recent years, Quebecor has joined other distributors to also take action in piracy cases against Truespeed Internet Services, TVAddons and Gold TV.
Subscribe Now – Free!
Broadcast Dialogue has been required reading in the Canadian broadcast media for 30 years. When you subscribe, you join a community of connected professionals from media and broadcast related sectors from across the country.
The Weekly Briefing from Broadcast Dialogue is delivered exclusively to subscribers by email every Thursday. It’s your link to critical industry news, timely people moves, and excellent career advancement opportunities.
Let’s get started right now.
