Sky Television claims win in piracy fight securing interim injunction

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It has been a big day for Sky in its battle to protect its programming from piracy, with one court injunction secured and a plan to issue another revealed.

Sky Television says it has secured an interim injunction against a Christchurch company which it accuses of selling devices that help people access television programming without paying.

The win comes on the same day that a separate, wider war of words has broken out over a plan by Sky to force the country's top internet providers to block access to websites hosting pirated television content. 

Sky TV launched legal action earlier this year against two companies – Hamilton-based My Box and Christchurch company FibreTV NZ – which it said were selling devices designed to help people illegally watch programmes, including those for which Sky has the New Zealand broadcasting rights. 

Both companies sell Android media players, commonly referred to as Kodi boxes, which cost upwards of $70 and often come pre-loaded with software that points to foreign television streams.

Tens of thousands of the devices are believed to have been bought by New Zealanders from both local and overseas online suppliers.

The court case against My Box has been pushed back until March next year, according to Sky.

But spokeswoman Kirsty Way said it had secured an interim injunction on Wednesday from Christchurch District Court against FibreTV on the terms Sky had sought and with costs awarded to Sky. 

The written judgment was due to be issued shortly, she said. 

Way said internet streaming devices "pre-loaded with piracy software" were "one of the most damaging forms of piracy" as they promised New Zealanders "lots of content that the promoter doesn't have the rights to". 

"The distributors pay nothing to the creators of the movies, TV and sport content, and simply cream off their fee, often in the hundreds of dollars," she said.

Way said a short written decision from the court was expected to be issued soon. "The court will liaise with Sky and Fibre TV lawyers to allocate a fixture for the summary judgement application in 2018," she said.

FibreTV has been contacted for comment.

A message on its phone number said a court had ordered it to cease trading until the Friday just passed, when it expected its case against Sky would "come to a head".

But Way said her understanding was that FibreTV's earlier decision to cease trading had been a voluntary one, pending the injunction ruling on Wednesday. 

The phone message said FibreTV could not answer calls before last Friday but that it planned to be back afterwards.

A war of words broke out on Wednesday between Sky and the country's fourth largest telecommunications provider, Vocus, after Sky signalled it would apply for an injunction forcing Vocus, Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees to block their customers from accessing websites which Sky TV accuses of piracy.

Way said Sky intended to file that injunction application with the High Court in Auckland "shortly".

Pay television companies overseas have experienced success clamping down on the distribution of "pre-loaded" Kodi devices through the courts.

But non-profit society InternetNZ said Sky's separate attempt to force internet providers to block access to websites was "extreme" and unprecedented in New Zealand and "worked against the very nature of the internet". 

A report by United States researcher Sandvine published at the start of the month said the live streaming of pirated television material using devices such as Kodi boxes and purpose-made set-top boxes was a "multi-billion dollar problem" for pay-TV companies and the telecommunications industry.

About 6.5 per cent of North American households accessed "paid pirate TV services" each month, it said. 

Many pirated television services streamed programming to consumers' devices "24x7", whether they were watching or not, resulting in huge amounts of phantom traffic crossing networks, it said.