Lenka Hrivnáková, Author at The Association of Commercial Television

ULOŽ.TO LOST A LAWSUIT OVER ŠARLATÁN BUT WANTS TO CONTINUE THE LITIGATION

The online repository should pay nearly a million crowns for allowing the Czech film Šarlatán to be downloaded despite repeated warnings.

The legal battles between film distributors and the Ulož.to online repository have reached another stage. Both sides have had alternating success in court. Last week, justice took the side of the film distributor CinemArt. On Thursday, the Municipal Court in Prague ruled that Ulož.to should pay CZK 976,000 for allowing the downloading of the biographical drama Šarlatán without the consent of the copyright holders.

The film was available on Ulož.to for at least two years, even repeated warnings from the rights holders did not help.

According to Hospodářské noviny, which reported on the non-final judgment, this is the first successful lawsuit for monetary compensation against similar servers. Ulož.to is appealing the verdict and believes that CinemArt will ultimately receive no compensation.

The disc with the film could be easily found on Ulož.to at the time of writing this article. Various evasions delay and prolong legal disputes. The repository has recently changed the nature of the service and its operator. The current name is Ulož.to Disk, technically it is presented as a cloud service with external search, and the operator is Cloud Platforms a.s. based in Most.

The dispute concerns the operation of the server in its previous form, which was operated by Petacloud. The same people are acting on behalf of that company and the current Cloud Platforms, both companies have their seats at the same address in Most. Petacloud has been subject to an enforcement procedure since May this year because of another case related to the fact that Ulož.to allowed the uploading and downloading of the TV Prima series Duch. In addition, the Court keeping the Register of Companies has initiated proceedings to have the company dissolved because it has not filed documents in the Collection of Deeds for a long time.

How did the court arrive at the amount of CZK 976,000 in the Šarlatán case? According to CinemArt, it corresponds to the amount for which it sells licenses to use similarly successful films. And they could ask for even more. As the judge noted the licensing fees can range from hundreds of thousands to millions of crowns. And because the dispute relates to unauthorised use of the work, the copyright holder could demand double the normal price under the law.

“The judgement contains many errors and shows a lack of understanding of the issue, which we, unfortunately, encounter regularly in courts of first instance. The higher courts agree with us in these disputes but unfortunately, this often takes a very long time, and the opposing party takes advantage of that,” says Ulož.to, disputing the damage caused.

The repository disagrees with the legal conclusion the judge reached. It argues that as a cloud service provider, it does not use any works and thus cannot infringe copyright. “As such, the first and key condition for a claim for unjust enrichment (as the court held) is not satisfied. Even the Supreme and Constitutional Courts have previously confirmed our opinion,” Ulož.to states.

The judge accepted CinemArt’s arguments that Petacloud could avoid paying the court-ordered amount. She, therefore, ordered Ulož.to to pay CZK 976,000 within three days of receiving the judgment. But even that does not mean CinemArt will get the money. This follows from the operator’s response to the judgment.

“The alleged ‘damages’, the payment of which has been ordered by a ruling that is not final but has an immediate effect, will not be paid to CinemArt but will be deposited in a lawyer’s custody. It is for the Court of Appeal to decide whether the funds will be returned to Ulož.to or paid to CinemArt. Given the numerous errors in the judgment, we naturally expect to recover the funds,” the repository added in its media statement.

Ulož.to considers it absurd that a repository operator should provide compensation for unjust enrichment whenever user-generated content infringing copyright appears on its commercial platform. Ulož.to argues that applying this logic, even the world’s major platforms allowing content to be uploaded to them could not operate.

The file search has not been running on the Ulož.to domain since the beginning of this year. Instead, the repository redirects users to Gozo or other search engines such as Google, DuckDuckGo, or Seznam when a keyword is entered. Gozo states on its website that it does not store search history or collect any personal data. The search engine does not have any company contact details apart from email and a form, and the domain is registered anonymously.

Ulož.to is also facing other lawsuits initiated, for example, by Prima TV or Nova TV. Since January, copyright holders have had a stronger position thanks to an amendment to the Copyright Act. Simply put, the amendment introduced the principle that repositories like Ulož.to should actively seek permission in advance for copyrighted content that might appear on them. Very large platforms with more than five million users a month have an obligation to prevent the uploading of works about which the copyright holders have provided the relevant and necessary information and which they do not wish to be distributed on the repository.

Platforms that are used by fewer than five million users per month must remove the work upon notification by the rights holders and do everything possible to prevent it from being re-uploaded.

The changes to Ulož.to were made after the amended Copyright Act had come into force at the beginning of January. The repository became a cloud service. “In Czech conditions, this is the most common self-protection of those running a business at the expense of copyright holders,” said Klára Brachtlová who presented the situation of the fight against pirated content on the internet on behalf of the Association of Commercial Television at the Digimedia conference in June.

Repository operators use various creative ways to complicate the enforcement of legal obligations. Services purposely change their names or terms and conditions; one company is liquidated and another one is created immediately afterwards. It is also typical to change the operator when the service is facing a lawsuit. The physical seats of companies use virtual office services.

The Association of Commercial Television suggests taking inspiration from abroad. Responsibility for operating online content-sharing services should not only be held by legal entities (companies) but also by specific people. The Czech legal system could also introduce the last-resort option of blocking access to a particular server that infringes copyright on a mass scale. Such options exist in Greece, Italy, Lithuania, France, and other countries.

TV stations argue that they lose money from broadcast advertising if users download content from an online repository. In addition, these sources include unaired episodes that have exclusive previews on pay services such as Voyo or Prima+. More money is thus lost due to unpurchased subscriptions. TV stations also complain that repositories attach their own online advertising to the downloads, thus adorning themselves with borrowed plumes and engaging in unfair competition by using another party’s unlicensed content for their own commercial purposes.

Source: lupa.cz

CZECH COMMERCIAL STATIONS GREW IN THE LAST HALF-YEAR, THE HIGHEST SHARE FOR CZECH TELEVISION

In the first half of this year, Czech Television stations had the highest share of all-day viewership in the over-15 age target group. However, compared to the same period last year, commercial TV stations improved mainly.

Czech Television stations recorded a cumulative share of 30,10 % in the total daily audience target group over the age of 15 in the first half of this year and became the most watched stations on the czech market. This is according to the official ATO-Nielsen audience measurement data for the period from 1st January to 30th June 2023.

The Nova Group achieved the highest share in prime time in the 15+ group and confirmed its leadership in the 15-54 and 15-69 audience groups in both daytime and evening broadcasts.

The Prima Group increased its share in the 15+ group and confirmed its position as the second most watched group in this audience category. It was third strongest in prime time 15+ as well as in the 15-54 and 15-59 groups.

In year-on-year comparisons, the commercial entities fared particularly well. The Nova group (more strongly in prime time), Atmedia and Television Seznam increased their shares the most.

Of the individual stations, the best performer was Seznam Television, which posted a 0.69 percentage point year-on-year increase to 1.48% in the first half of the year (15+, all day). Prima Krimi (+0.57 ppts. to 3.86%), Nova Gold (+0.47 ppts. to 1.90%), CNN Prima News (+0.28 ppts. to 2%) and CT2 (0.38 ppts. to 4.37%) also increased their share significantly. Other thematic stations of the Nova and Prima groups also increased their share slightly. The main channel Nova achieved almost the same result in this year’s first half as in the same period last year (+0.03 p.p.), while the main channels CT1 and TV Prima were slightly behind their last year’s half-year result (all for 15+ full days).

Source: mediaguru.cz

STUDY: USERS OF PIRATED SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES FACE HIGH LEVELS OF FRAUD

Digital Citizens Alliance report found that 72% of those who used a credit card to sign up for a pirated TV, movie or gaming streaming service reported fraud

Internet users that use a credit card to sign up for illegal piracy streaming services to gain access to movies, TV shows, and games face a serious risk of having their card used to run up charges they didn’t authorize, according to a new Digital Citizens Alliance investigation.

“Our latest report is further proof that piracy operators will go to any length to turn a profit off of consumers with an appetite for content, even those who are willing to pay for it,” said Tom Galvin, executive director of the Digital Citizens Alliance. “Combined with our previous research highlighting the risks associated with free piracy apps and services, the situation becomes even clearer. The pursuit of pirated content is an inherently risky behavior that threatens consumers’ devices, wallets, and privacy.”

The report titled, “Giving Piracy Operators Credit,” includes an investigation into how a Digital Citizens investigator’s credit card was targeted for $1,495 in illicit purchases and a separate survey that highlights a number of larger issues relating to pirated content.

The survey found widespread use of pirated content with one in three Americans admitting to watching pirated content.

The survey also found that 72% of Americans who said they used a credit card to purchase a piracy subscription service reported having an issue with credit card fraud over the last year.

To test whether credit card fraud was tied to piracy subscription services, Digital Citizens signed up for 20 piracy subscription services. Investigators signed for the services from February through April of 2023 using a new Capital One QuickSilver credit card that was used solely for this project.

The sites charged a set monthly subscription fee ranging from $5.99 to $40 and within two weeks, the fraudulent charges began, the group said.

The purchases were purportedly for grocery delivery, women’s apparel, computer software, a cash advance, and a large mystery charge of $850 that, fortunately, wasn’t processed. The charges appear to originate from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Lithuania.

Specific charges include:

February 22, 2023 – Eleven days after signing up for the first piracy streaming services – two charges of $17.21 each occurred listed as “GB Pay affectioni.” Affectioni appears to be a women’s apparel store in Qingdao City, China. GP Pay is a mobile payment service.
February 23, 2023 – Just a day later, a cash advance of $14.99 (along with an additional $3 fee) was made using the Wollito crypto platform. The credit card statement states that the purchase originated in Vilnius, Lithuania. No other information is available.
March 22, 2023 – A $16.60 purchase at a clothing store based in Hong Kong. The name on the charge was “clothingyoyo,” which corresponds to the Clothing Yoyo outlet based in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.
March 31, 2023 – A $16.68 purchase for “thedailygroceries.” The charge originated in Jiaxing Shi in China. Although the name indicates its food-related, the website, thedailygroceries.com, which appears to correspond to the charge, sells jewelry such as necklaces and bracelets along with handbags.
April 30, 2023 – Two attempts for larger purchases of $899 and $150 occur. The nature of the purchases is not known because Capital One alerted the cardholder for approval, which was not given.
May 1, 2023 – The first of two larger purchases occur at a Singapore-based apparel store called Pazzion for $118.53.
May 9, 2023 – A second purchase at Pazzion is processed for $244.78. According to its website, Pazzion sells apparel such as shoes, handbags, bracelets, and other accessories.

In addition to the investigation of the 20 piracy subscription services, Digital Citizens commissioned a research survey to better understand the risks of piracy websites and apps. The survey asked 2,330 Americans how they get their entertainment.

Key findings include:

Over the past year, roughly 1 in 3 Americans reported watching pirated content at least once. Some relied on pirated content after canceling other legitimate streaming options or cable or satellite services.
About 1 in 10 who reported watching pirated content said they had purchased a subscription using a credit card to do so.
Seventy-two percent of Americans who said they used a credit card to purchase a piracy subscription service also reported having an issue with credit card fraud over the last year. Only 18 percent of those who said they don’t visit pirate sites reported a similar issue.
Americans who visited piracy sites and apps were four times (44 percent to 10 percent) more likely to report being a victim of identity theft.
Americans who visited piracy sites and apps were five times (46 percent to 9 percent) more likely to report having an issue with malware in the last year.

The report also delved into a number of possible solutions to the problems and argued that the proliferation of piracy services into Americans’ homes – and the damage they do – requires concerted action by federal and state governments, the credit card companies that piracy operators rely on, and consumers themselves.

Efforts to combat piracy should include:

Payment processors terminating relationships with known piracy operators.
The FTC warns Americans about online risks that can expose them to financial fraud and malware.
Law enforcement using the tools they were given in 2020 to launch criminal investigations against piracy operators.
Consumer protection groups continuing to warn Americans about the risks.

More information is available at www.digitalcitizensalliance.org. The full report is available here.

Source: tvtechnology.com

NOVA GIVES RISE TO ADDITIONAL ACTIONS OVER PIRATED CONTENT

The TV Nova group has been giving rise to actions over illegal distribution of content via various repositories almost continuously. The damage caused by the illegal distribution of content amounts to hundreds of millions of crowns.

Nova TV Group is taking domestic repositories to court over the illegal distribution of content. It is waging a long-term battle against these platforms in an effort to protect its original content. The titles produced by Nova that are most often “pirated” include its flagship series Ulice, Ordinace v růžové zahradě 2, Zlatá labuť and the titles placed on its premium pay VOD platform, Voyo Original. “We invest a lot of money in original content, and illegal distribution devalues it,” points out Zdeňka Zimová, Nova’s chief lawyer. Nova’s experience shows that premiere content appears on repositories that do not have licensing agreements with Nova within hours of their release.

Several months ago, Nova filed a lawsuit against Ulož.to, the largest of the domestic repositories. The lawsuit is still pending, and according to Nova, the storage operator is doing everything it can to avoid liability in court (e.g. by changing the storage operator during the court proceedings, which is prolonging the process).

Even though an amendment to the Copyright Act came into force at the beginning of January 2023, which should give broadcasters greater protection against illegal distribution of content, they are still struggling with their content appearing on repositories. Under the Copyright Act, providers of content shared online must make their best efforts to obtain an appropriate licence for the protected content, to prevent the work from being accessed or to remove the content from their websites immediately upon notification from the rights holder of the content, while doing their best to prevent its re-upload. “The main problem is that the repositories claim that they are not covered by the amendment to the Copyright Act, formally changing to cloud storage, while we are convinced that they are subject to the Act,” says Zdeňka Zimová.
The Copyright Act does not classify cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive as online content providers. In order to avoid the amendment, existing repositories try to give the impression that they operate as cloud repositories. For example, content on Ulož.to is searched via the Gozo search engine, which is intended to evoke that content cannot be searched directly on Ulož.to. The only obligation the repositories are willing to accept is the deletion of specific reported links with protected content. But simply reporting specific objectionable links is not effective, according to Nova. “Even if the repository deletes the reported link, the same file with copyrighted content is uploaded to the repository again, which is a situation that is obviously convenient for the repositories because they place advertising next to the content,” Zdeňka Zimová describes the practice.

Nova will not only deal with Ulož.to in court but also with other services such as Fastshare.cz and others. “We are constantly filing complaints and motions for preliminary rulings and planning other activities but unfortunately, we are always one step behind because the repositories react to our calls and filings by redirecting their services to other websites, changing the operator to a company based in the Seychelles, etc.,” she says.

Hellspy and Hellshare have already left the market due to the new legislation. Last November, they agreed with the Association of Commercial Television (AKTV) to cooperate and adopted technical solutions that almost eliminated the appearance of copyright-protected works of AKTV members on their services. However, no similar agreement with other repositories is yet forthcoming, and according to Nova, the repositories refuse to apply similar technical solutions.

At the recent Digimedia 2023 conference, AKTV President, Klára Brachtlová, quantified the damage to content producers (broadcasters) caused by pirated content distribution at hundreds of millions of crowns. Exceptionally, the courts will stand up for the rights of broadcasters (the decision of the Regional Court in Ostrava this spring, which described the use of content distributed without a license as “impermissible parasitism and profiteering”). Overall, however, the courts are slow to act and the fight against pirated content is very time-consuming. According to Klára Brachtlová, inspiration can be found in Western Europe where repositories have been successfully dealt with, also thanks to the existence of the so-called shutdown authority, which in the case of copyright infringement allows, in the most extreme case, technical blocking of access to a website.

Source: mediaguru.cz

FILM PRODUCTIONS ARE LIVING A GOLDEN AGE, THEY DON’T NEED BILLIONS MORE, SAY BOSSES OF TV NOVA AND TV PRIMA

General Director of TV Nova Daniel Grunt and General Director of FTV Prima Marek Singer in an interview for Hospodářské noviny about levies to the cinema support fund, but also about SVOD services.

Marek Singer, the long-serving director of TV Prima, has known Daniel Grunt, the head of TV Nova, personally for 15 years. Both entered the TV business at the beginning of 2008. While Singer, an experienced manager of Unilever and Karlovy Vary Mineral Waters, took over the management of the TV duo, Daniel Grunt, seven years younger, became the director of TV Nova’s internet division. In the following years, their paths merged, with Grunt managing digital media within the Prima Group for nine years, making him one of Singer’s closest collaborators.

Today, they stand on the other side of the barricade, but they share more than enough common themes. For example, the government’s planned increase in the levy to the State Cinema Fund for streaming services.

…

Full interview in today’s issue of Hospodářské noviny.

Source: hn.cz

AMENDMENT TO CZECH TELEVISION FINANCING WILL CAUSE IMBALANCES IN THE MARKET, ACCORDING TO NOVA AND PRIMA

The main commercial players state that the increased TV fee together with the extension of its payment to include all users of ČT services instead of only those having a TV set would bring imbalance in the market.

An increase in funding for Czech Television (ČT) through an increase in the television licence fee and other legislative changes that would redefine the television licence fee payer would, in the opinion of the largest commercial television groups, Nova and Prima, bring imbalance to the domestic television market. This was stated by TV Nova CEO, Daniel Grunt, and TV Prima CEO, Marek Singer, at Wednesday’s Digimedia 2023 conference.

The increase in the TV fee could be regulated by the “major media amendment”. However, it is questionable whether there will be political support for a fee increase. “We will see whether the opposition will block the law,” said Petr Dvořák, Czech Television’s CEO, at the conference. He told the participants that Czech Television’s estimates show that about 300,000 to 350,000 households do not pay the TV fee today, as they have stated in an affidavit that they do not own a TV set and thus do not use ČT services. If it were possible to change the definition of the licence fee payer to households that do not own a TV set but receive ČT services via digital platforms such as PCs or mobile phones, this would bring CZK 420 million per year to ČT’s budget.

Petr Dvořák described the proposal by ČT’s newly elected CEO, Jan Souček, that the fees should be paid by every household using electricity as a proposal made “long after the deadline”. If negotiations on the text of the amendment were to return to that point, the whole process would be significantly slowed down and the amendment would not be adopted until sometime around 2028, he said. On the other hand, he described the discussions on a new definition of a payer as advanced. It would basically build on the current definition and newly include users of ČT services on devices other than a TV set.

CEO of TV Nova, Daniel Grunt, said that a possible increase of the ČT fee to CZK 180 [the officially proposed sum is CZK 150, Ed.] from the current CZK 135 would bring Czech Television CZK 2 billion more together with the legislative redefinition of the fee payer. “This will create an uneven playing field for commercial players. ČT would have more in total than the commercial revenues of all commercial TV companies,” he said, adding that the public service function should be clearly defined.

Marek Singer, CEO of Prima Group, has also opposed the increase in TV fees. “Moreover, this does not mean that the CZK 2 billion increase will bring more new quality series and programmes. We are already competing for actors and writers and such an increase will only raise inflation on the market,” he added. At the same time, he believes that ČT would have to redefine the payer prospectively. And extending the definition to include users of ČT services on digital platforms would substantially solve the issue of ČT’s austerity scheme, he said. He therefore considers such a change “the least evil”, as he later clarified to MediaGuru.cz.

Czech Television and Czech Radio propose to increase the fee by CZK 15, i.e. to CZK 150 for ČT and CZK 60 for ČRo. As already mentioned, under the amendment to the Act on Television and Radio Fees, the fee should no longer be paid per TV or radio set, but the payer should be the one who uses the public service, i.e. including users of various internet platforms. At the same time, the principle of payment per household should be maintained.

According to Dvořák, the new definition of licence fee payers would mean an increase in the number of paying entities by 300,000 to 350,000. Together with the fee increase and the new method of calculating payment for companies, this would bring almost CZK 2 billion a year for ČT, while if the fee were increased by CZK 45, the annual benefit would be CZK 3.5 billion.

Source: mediaguru.cz

BRITISH HAND OUT HARSH PUNISHMENTS FOR TV PIRACY

The latest example from Britain, but also other examples from Europe, show that piracy can be effectively detected but also condemned, writes Erika Luzsicza.

The British have cracked down on TV piracy in an exemplary way. They are setting the rules on how to deal with this type of crime. A group of five men who illegally streamed popular Premier League football matches were sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison. What may seem like a relatively trivial matter was actually a million-dollar business. The five were in fact selling access to watch at a rate of £10 per month. They made more than £7 million, or roughly £168 million. They managed to entice more than 50,000 subscribers and other resellers.

What is interesting is how the case was approached. The leader of the group was found guilty by the court of conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and also contempt of court. Overall, these are the longest prison sentences for piracy ever handed down in Britain. As highlighted by lawyers for the Premier League itself, the prosecutions were brought to protect some of the world’s most valuable content.

Harsh sentences have been handed out in the past – such as in 2019, when a trio of men were tried for illegally providing streaming services to more than a thousand pubs and clubs. Together they will serve a total of 17 years in prison.

Similar cases have been on the rise in recent years, across Europe. They show that piracy can be effectively detected but also condemned. The damage is enormous. The Premier League itself points out that the sale of copyrights makes a significant financial contribution to the entire football pyramid.

At the same time, these reports help to motivate other countries on how they can approach piracy and, where possible, crack down.

Source: mediaguru.cz

TV IN CZECH REPUBLIC IN MAY: ČT LEADS, NOVA, LIST AND ATMEDIA GREW

Czech Television’s stations continued to record a market share of over 30% this May and achieved the highest market share in the universal group over 15 years of age.

Czech Television stations also had the highest share of the TV market in May. Cumulatively, they reached 30.47% in the all-day broadcasting in the over-15 age group. The Nova group recorded the highest share in May in the prime time 15+ and also in the 15-54 and 15-69 audience groups in both daytime and evening broadcasts. This is according to official ATO-Nielsen measurement data.

The Prima group posted a full-day share of 27.18% in 15+ for May, finishing third strongest behind the TV Nova and CT groups by a few tenths. The Nova group, Television Seznam and Atmedia stations improved the most year-on-year.

May is traditionally a strong month for the sports channel CT Sport. The best performers year-on-year were Television Seznam (1.5% share in May, 15+), thematic channels of the Prima group – Prima Krimi, CNN Prima News, which exceeded 2% share (2.06%, 15+) and Prima Zoom, thematic stations of the Nova group – Nova Gold, Nova Cinema and Nova Lady. Compared to last May, the channel CT2, the main channel CT1, the station CT art and the main channel TV Nova also increased their share.

The most watched programmes in May were the series Specialists (Nova), Televizni noviny (Nova), hockey broadcasts (CT sport) and the series ZOO (Prima) and Cases of Marty the Extraordinary (TV Nova).

Source: mediaguru.cz