The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) announces that the High Court in Hong Kong has entered judgment in favour of the plaintiffs in civil actions against the five remaining defendants for importing and trading in unauthorized satellite TV signal decoding equipment.
In his ruling, the Judge granted an injunction prohibiting the defendants from trading in unauthorised smart cards and associated apparatus stating that such use was offensive and must be stopped.
In the Judgment the Court held that the defendants had breached Hong Kongs copyright law and had no licence to deal in the plaintiffs broadcasts. The defendants were found to have been importing, possessing and supplying apparatus obtained in territories outside Hong Kong designed to infringe the plaintiffs copyright.
With this action we have won an historic decision which unequivocally signals that our industry is tackling piracy which is costing our businesses hundreds of millions of US dollars each year, said Mr Twiston Davies. This was our first action in Hong Kong and new actions will soon be underway in other markets such as the Philippines and Thailand. This is vital work.
The plaintiffs named in the actions are STAR, CNN, Turner Entertainment Networks Asia, ESPN STAR Sports, Discovery Networks Asia and NGC Network Asia.