Sky Sports copyright infringement costs trio of offenders £10000 each

[Len]

Following successful legal action taken by Sky, James Barnes Bar and Jagtar Singh Nijar of O’Kane’s in Glasgow, Linelly Limited and Linda Davidson of Fox’s bar in Edinburgh and Claire Gorman of Cheers Bar in Cambuslang have each been ordered to pay £10,000 (€11,420) in damages for infringing Sky’s copyright by showing Sky Sports programming illegally in their premises. They must also pay Sky’s costs and fund the placement of notices advertising the rulings in local press.

Sky sought and was awarded permanent interdicts (injunctions) 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 license
 

• James Barnes Bar and Jagtar Singh Nijar of O’Kane’s have been ordered to pay £10,000 in damages, as well as fund the placing of notices in The Evening Times, The Morning Advertiser and The Scottish Licensed Trade News, advertising the ruling.
• Linelly Limited and Linda Davidson of Fox’s have been ordered to pay £10,000 in damages, as well as fund the placing of notices in the The Edinburgh Evening News, The Morning Advertiser and The Scottish Licensed Trade News, advertising the ruling.
• Claire Gorman of Cheers Bar has been ordered to pay £10,000 in damages, as well as fund the placing of notices in The Evening Times, The Morning Advertiser and The Scottish Licensed Trade News, advertising the ruling.

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. SPFL and Premier League matches are broadcast live exclusively on Sky Sports and BT Sport in Scotland. Sky Sports is only available to licensed premises in Scotland via a commercial agreement from Sky.

“These rulings demonstrate the seriousness of this issue and through the orders to fund advertising we hope to highlight the consequences of televising Sky’s content illegally,” commented George Lawson, head of commercial piracy at Sky. “We are committed to visiting thousands of pubs every season to monitor the games they are showing, as well as investigating suppliers to protect Sky customers who are unfairly losing business due to this illegal activity.”