Pubs fined for illegal Sky use
June 23, 2017
By Colin Mann
Following successful legal action taken by Sky, licensees in the Scottish towns of Coatbridge and Doune have been found to be infringing Sky’s copyright by showing Sky Sports programming illegally in their premises.
Sky sought and was awarded permanent interdicts in the Court of Session, Edinburgh, which prevents the licensees and anyone acting on their behalf from infringing Sky’s copyright by showing Sky programming without the correct commercial licence. Each pub has been ordered to pay £10,000 (€11,356) in damages, as well as fund the placement of notices in local and trade publications advertising the ruling.
The pubs are:
- The Woodside, Coatbridge
- Red Lion, Doune
These successful cases come from Sky’s instruction to intellectual property experts from Burness Paull LLP and form a key part of Sky’s commitment to protecting pubs who invest in legitimate Sky Sports subscriptions. Sky is committed to visiting every licensed premises reported by other publicans and/or organisations for illegally showing Sky and has made arrangements to visit hundreds of pubs each week in towns and cities across the UK this season.
“Illegal broadcasting of sporting events is damaging to the pub industry which is why we’re committed to protecting Sky customers who are unfairly losing business due to this illegal activity,” confirmed George Lawson, Head of Commercial Piracy at Sky.
“These latest orders demonstrate how seriously the courts take piracy through the large penalty applied, but also through the order to fund advertising, which we hope will help to highlight the consequences of televising Sky’s content illegally.”