Advanced Television

Judge rejects TVCatchup case

November 29, 2010

A UK judge has dismissed an application by TV re-streaming site TVCatchup to throw out a copyright case brought against it by Britain’s broadcasters, saying that “the claim does have a real prospect of success”.

The website has been re-streaming live TV channels for two years ago. ITV, Channel 4 and Five in June filed against and now Justice Kitchin has rejected the services’ claim that it doesn’t breach the channels copyright.

The channels say they have exclusive rights to broadcast and on demand so TVCatchup has argued it is not on demand and the streams are one to one so not broadcasting. However the judge says the broadcaster’s rights are not limited so finely.

With the failure of its dismissal attempt, a full case will go ahead next year. The outcome is likely to affect several other similar services.

Categories: Articles, Content, Piracy, Regulation