Multichoice Ghana Limited, agents of SuperSport
International, has sued Champion Broadcasting Limited (Champion TV) for
infringing on its copyrights by unlawfully showing the English Premier League,
La Liga and the UEFA Champions League without authority.
Aside asking for cost from the court, the
plaintiff is also seeking damages for copyright and related rights infringement
and a perpetual injunction on Champion TV, restraining it, its assigns and
agents from broadcasting content which infringes on the plaintiffs including
the football matches of EPL, La Liga and UEFA Champions League.
Effects
Multichoice said that the continuous violation
of the content rights of the plaintiff was having an extremely adverse impact
on its business, as Champion Tv’s unlawful broadcasts were widely patronised
for free in Ghana and beyond and widely advertised on the worldwide web
(internet) through articles with captions such as “How to Watch Paid DStv
Channels on Champion Tv Decoder for Free”.
It stated that unless compelled by the court,
the defendants shall not desist from the copyright violation of the plaintiff’s
exclusive content rights and is feverishly building a customer base for its own
illegal business at the expense of the plaintiff.
Claims
In its statement of claim, signed by its
attorney, Mr Anthony Forson, it noted that Supersports was granted exclusive
rights by the English Premier League, through competitive bidding process to
broadcast the football matches of the English Premier League (EPL) for the
2015/2016 football season within the territories of Ghana for valuable
consideration.
It claimed that in April 2015, it noticed that
the defendants, in disregard of the exclusive intellectual property rights
granted to the plaintiff, was broadcasting its Supersports channels on
its Champion TV satellite television platform without any authorisation from
the plaintiff or its attorney.
The plaintiff stated that after tracing the
defendant’s broadcasts to its DStv smartcards, it disconnected its services to
those smartcards in an attempt to end the copyright infringement but the
defendants persisted by resorting to other smartcards whenever one was
disconnected.
Police raid
It stated that on June 5, 2015, a police raid at
the premises of the defendants, following from a complaint by the plaintiff’s
attorney found equipment of the plaintiff, including DStv decoder and smart
cards, used in broadcasting the plaintiff’s channels on the defendant’s
Champion tv platform as well as equipment of other pay television companies.
It added that after the raid, criminal
prosecution with the case number D21/408/2016 was commenced against an officer
and staff of the defendants namely Dr Kwaku Frimpong and Mathew Baah
respectively for various offences under the Electronic Communication Act 2008
(Act775) and the copyright Act 2005, Act 690.
The plaintiff stated further that the defendants
has now in an act of piracy of broadcast signals unlawfully tapped into
satellite signals of foreign television broadcast who have no rights to
broadcast the football matches of the EPL, La Liga and UEFA Champion League
within the territories of Ghana to continue its infringement broadcast in
Ghana.
It said despite repeated demands and police
interventions seeking a cessation of the defendant’s copyright infringement on
the plaintiff’s proprietary rights for the exclusive broadcast of television
content, the defendant has persisted in its unlawful acts.
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