Lawsuit against Polsky.tv for allegedly unlawfully disseminating content of Polish Television in the USA

Polish leading television broadcasters allied in Association “SIGNAL” recently have filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division against Polsky.TV company and 16 major individual dealers (and other related parties) alleging that these entities unlawfully disseminated television programming that rightfully belongs to the Polish television broadcasters.

Polsky.TV is the international distributor of IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) and, according to the complaint, is unlawfully using television programing and distributing the pirated content of over 30 Polish TV channels to paying subscribers. The programming distributed by Polsky.TV includes content that is lawfully owned by the Polish leading television broadcasters allied in Association “SIGNAL”. Therefore, as set forth in the complaint, Polsky.TV has no rights or authorization to disseminate any audiovisual or other materials legally owned by them. Since Polsky.TV persistently violates copyrights or trademarks of Association “SIGNAL”’ members and other Polish TV broadcasters by unlawfully distributing their linear channels and reaps financial benefits from this illegal procedure, Association “SIGNAL” has decided to take legal action in court.

- Such activity affects not only authors and producers but also viewers, who pay for an access to the video content without any guaranty that it will be provided – claims the board’s member of Association “SIGNAL”, Jarosław Mojsiejuk.

The complaint regarding piracy of Polish television broadcasters’ copyrights and trademarks as well as unlawful disseminating of television programing content has been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division against: Polsky.TV, Polsky Multimedia Group Ltd., Fidera Holding S.A. /Ethnic Media Pool, Bestpol TV GmbH and other 16 major distributors of Polsky.TV in US.

The lawsuit was preceded by a robust antipiracy campaign and other actions taken by Polish television distributors whose aim was to cease the violation of their copyrights or trademarks as Polsky.TV was unlawfully and without authorization disseminating the programing content of their channels. As a related effort, on the July 2013 Association “SIGNAL” have submitted a notification of crime committed by Polsky.TV and filed a request for prosecution at Polish State Prosecutor's Office.

Therefore, the Polish leading television broadcasters allied in Association “SIGNAL” announce their future legal actions against companies and cooperating distributors unlawfully disseminating content of Polish channels.

The PwC report regarding the impact of video piracy on Polish economy prepared on the request of Association “SIGNAL” shows that only 8% of respondents were able to correctly identify websites which operate fully legally. This is largely due to the professionalization of websites which offer illegal access, including the paid offer, advertisements of well-known brands and the general simplicity of reaching such sources. Scale of Polsky.TV activities and confirmations that the company has rights to distribute the content of Polish television broadcasters may cause the disorientation regarding the legal character of the procedure among Polsky.TV’s clients. However the Polish broadcasters who have filed the lawsuit against Polsky.TV confirm that this company has no rights or authorization to distribute their content.

Dorota Zawadzka
www.sygnal.org.pl

Association “SIGNAL” promotes the protection of intellectual property as well as rights of broadcasters, distributors, licensors and audience of television programming content or other multimedia content. The association was established in 2001 and since then it has gained 20 members among which are companies such as: A+E Networks, BBC Worldwide Polska, Cyfrowy Polsat, Discovery Polska, FOX International Channels Poland, HBO Polska, Irdeto, ITI Neovision, Kino Polska TV, ZPR Media, NAGRA, Redefine, Sony Pictures Television, Telewizja Polsat, Turner Broadcasting System Poland, TVN, Universal Networks International, Viacom International Media Networks Northern Europe, Viasat World, The Walt Disney Company (Polska). The organization focuses on organizing workshops and trainings (so far over 250 lectures for 15,000 representatives of law enforcement authorities such as policemen from Department Against Economic Crime, public prosecutor's office or police academies have been organized by the SIGNAL), researching and analyzing.