Federal Court grants injunction against GoldTV

OTTAWA — A Federal Court judge has granted an interim ban on what the big telecom companies are calling a “pirate” IPTV provider, which operates under the names GoldTV.ca and GoldTV.biz. The injunction granted by the court on Wednesday ordered the sites to be shut down, pending the final outcome of the trial. The court has also scheduled a two-day hearing on September 11 and 12, when lawyers for the telecoms will ask the court to order a number of third-party Internet Service providers to block the sites. Lawyers representing BCE Inc.’s media division, Quebecor Inc.’s Groupe TVA, and Rogers Communications Inc. told a federal judge in Ottawa Wednesday morning that the service, which advertises itself as an IPTV offering access to thousands of channels for either a $15 monthly fee or a $150 yearly fee, violates their copyright. Justice Catherine Kane agreed, saying she was satisfied that the parties met the three-part test for granting an injunction, known as the RJR MacDonald criteria. The test required the telecoms to show that the matter is a serious one, that they would suffer “irreparable harm” if the two GoldTV sites are allowed to continue, and the “balance of convenience” -- the balance of harm done by the injunction -- favours the plaintiff. As of early Wednesday evening, the GoldTV.biz website was not loading on an internet browser, while GoldTV.ca still worked, though the full streaming service was not tested. The telecoms do not know who operates either GoldTV site, but a lawyer representing them said there is significant reason to believe the site is based in Canada because they include Canadian programming in their offering, which few of these types of services do, and researchers for the company found an address associated with the site corresponding to a large apartment building in Toronto, but without an apartment number. Counsel representing the telecoms told the court that as of yet, there was no one to seek costs or damages from, but asked that costs be granted in the telecoms favour once they are identified, which Kane said was reasonable. Telecom lawyers will ask the court in September to order Bell, Bragg Communications Inc.’s Eastlink, Cogeco Inc., Distributel Communications Ltd., Rogers’ Fido, Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp., Shaw Communications Inc., TekSavvy Solutions Inc., Telus Corp., and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron to block the GoldTV sites. This past fall, several of the big telecom companies, which were part of the FairPlayCanada coalition, asked Parliament to strengthen anti-piracy measures by creating a new administrative enforcement office, and directing the RCMP to prioritize digital piracy operations. The coalition of providers and broadcasters had previously asked the CRTC to implement a website-blocking regime, so telecoms could turn to the CRTC for redress on piracy complaints, rather than the federal courts, a request which drew criticism from United Nations rapporteur David Kaye and other internet advocacy organizations. The CRTC rejected the request, and now it is before the panel reviewing the country’s communications laws. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story reported that the Federal Court ordered ISPs to block GoldTV.biz and GoldTV.ca. No such order has yet occurred and the hearing for that will happen in September. Rather, the injunction granted by the court asks operators of the GoldTV.ca and GoldTV.biz sites to shut them down, pending the outcome of a copyright infringement trial. — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Federal Court grants injunction against GoldTV

News | August 7, 2019

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Federal Court grants injunction against GoldTV

News | August 7, 2019

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