Québecor partially wins piracy case against companies sharing content in hotels

Telecommunications company Québecor Media has partially won a summary judgement against two Québec City companies.

A summary judgment is a motion brought on by one party to have the case processed without going to trial.

In this case, Québecor argued Konek and Hill Valley worked together to distribute TVA and TVA Sports channels to hotels without obtaining prior rights.

According to a press release, Québecor first became aware of the activity in early 2020 after it learned some of its clients were asked to do business with the above companies.

But Québecor is only “partially successful” in this case, according to Justice Sébastien Grammond, because Hill Valley is considered a retransmitter since February 3rd, 2021, under section 31 of the Copyright Act. This means that they can show TVA stations but not TVA Sports stations.

“Considering that this is only a summary judgment on technical points and that the suit and counter-suit will not go to court before 2023, we do not wish to comment on this unexpected and hasty communication from Quebecor,” Jean-François Rousseau, COO of Konek, said in an email to MobileSyrup.

The court has ruled Québecor will be awarded costs during the second phase of the ruling. It’s not clear when this will be held.

This is the latest piracy case Québecor has been successful with. Last week, Vidéotron, a subsidiary of Québecor, won a lawsuit against TVAddons, along with several other media giants.

Founder Adam Lackman admitted to sharing copyrighted content on TVAddons, a media library app distributing multiple add-ons.

“Québecor takes piracy very seriously and will continue identifying resellers and taking all necessary legal action to protect the rights of subsidiaries actively engaged in creating and redistributing content for the benefit of its cultural workers,” the company says in a statement.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Québecor Media