3 Count: Not-So World Cup

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1: FIFA to Take Legal Action as BeoutQ Piracy Row Widens

First off today, Al Jazeera reports that FIFA has announced it will be taking legal action against the company beoutQ over allegations it illegally streamed the World Cup to countries in the Middle East.

According to FIFA, beoutQ is operating out of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where it is broadcasting 10 channels over the Arabsat satellite operator. FIFA claims that the have reached no license agreement with beoutQ and have asked Saudi Arabian government to aid them in their fight against piracy.

In this call FIFA joins tennis’ governing bodies over what they consider pirate sports streaming by beoutQ in the region. They say that the case is especially troubling due to the “unparalleled sophistication and the extensive period of time over which the commercial-scale theft has been allowed to continue.”

2: Judge Allows Lawsuit Over Risque Melania Trump Photos

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that a judge is allowing a copyright infringement lawsuit to move forward even though the copyright registration lists a different person as the owner.

The lawsuit was filed by the photo syndication service Lickerish, which claims that Z Lifestyle illegally used photos of First Lady Melania Trump without permission. However, Z Lifesstyle quickly pointed the copyright registration, which lists photographer Antoine Verglas as the owner. Lickerish replied that it is the “Rights and Permissions” contact and that it has provided adequate proof that it is the sole licensee of the images.

To that end, the judge seemed to agree, saying that the registration “only demonstrates that the photographers were the initial owners of the copyright.” Since, at this early stage in the case, plaintiffs only need to allege ownership, they may have to offer further proof later but have done enough to pass this stage.

3: Blyth Pirate Jailed for Illegally Streaming Premier League Football and Films

Finally today, Rob Kennedy & Katie Dickinson at the Chronicle Live report that, in the UK, John Haggerty has been sentenced to five years and three months in prison for his role in selling “fully loaded” Kodi boxes.

Haggerty founded Evolution Trading, a company that provided XBMC-based devices that included a subscription IPTV service, which provided illegal access to movies, TV shows and more. Though the company had the stated purpose of selling “coffee, tea, cocoa and spices” the company was used to sell the set-top boxes. This resulted in an investigation by the Federation Against Copyright Theft and resulted in his arrest for conspiracy to defraud.

The incident was not Haggerty’s first run in with the law. Haggerty was previously sentenced to 41 months in prison for bank fraud and was released in May 2012, one year before he began selling the Kodi boxes. His wife received a two-year suspended sentence with the judge saying he took it easier on her due to her minor role in the company and her lack of any previous legal troubles.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.