Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

  • Greg Murrell
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Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

10 years 10 months ago
#496427
Natal Independent Article 21 July 2014

Tellytrack are really getting desperate now.

(I hope the link is working)

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  • Greg Murrell
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Re: Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

10 years 10 months ago
#496428
Hollywoodbets to defend R350m Tellytrack lawsuit

July 21 2014 at 08:00am
By Wiseman Khuzwayo
Independent Newspapers

Hollywoodbets, a bookmaker with 64 outlets nationally, would defend the lawsuit brought against it by Tellytrack, a company owned by the only two racecourse operators in South Africa, for breaching copyright, its group operating manager, Dermot O’Connell, said on Friday.

He refused to provide the defence to be put forward in the R350 million lawsuit.

Tellytrack provides a live television picture of horse racing in South Africa and Zimbabwe via its own broadcast network on DStv through an agreement with MultiChoice. It is owned by Phumelela Gaming and Leisure and Gold Circle, also known as the totalisator.

Phumelela owns all the racecourses in seven provinces and manages horse racing in an eighth, while Gold Circle owns all the racecourses in KwaZulu-Natal. The court matter arises out of the desire by Phumelela to “level the playing fields” with bookmakers.

The gist of its argument is that bets made at bookmakers divert money that should properly have been made available to the totalisator for the purposes of funding horse racing and bookmakers, therefore, make a disproportionately low contribution towards these costs.

Up to February 1, bookmakers paid R5 500 monthly for each outlet for the Tellytrack service. Since then, Tellytrack has required that bookmakers pay 3 percent of their revenue as a monthly service fee.

Many bookmakers refused to accept this deal, arguing that Phumelela and Gold Circle received 50 percent of betting tax revenue from the provincial gambling boards, which was made up of 6 percent tax on winning bets from bookmakers.

Those bookmakers prepared to pay the service fee were given a new platform, which operates though a decoder.

Phumelela argues: “The sport of horse racing as administered by the two racing operators should be permitted to charge a market-related fee for their intellectual property.”

Unconfirmed reports say bookmakers without the new platform simply “smuggled” their home decoders into their outlets. The channel was available for home subscription.

After being tipped off, Tellytrack successfully applied for search and seizure warrants after using police observer teams at various outlets.

In February, 39 bookmakers in Gauteng and the Gauteng Off-Course Bookmakers’ Association applied for an interdict against Tellytrack, but lost on the basis it was not urgent.

Their case has been set down for October. They have since made a complaint to the Competition Commission.

John Stuart, the chief executive of Tellytrack, and Riaan du Plessis, the chief executive of Phumelela, were not available for comment on Friday.

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  • Bob Brogan
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Re: Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

10 years 10 months ago
#496432
Thanks Greg

Links seem not to be working from the site on some devices

If your using iPhone/pad

Click on the link and hold then a box should open and click on open in new page

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  • rob faux
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Re: Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

10 years 10 months ago
#496434
Laying charges for piracy I can understand, but a civil action ??????? how they can accurately establish a pecuniary loss is interesting(and surprising)..........and if they can't ????

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  • naresh
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Re: Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

10 years 10 months ago
#496438
Making it even harder for me to get my UK exotics back at Hollywood or maybe a reason for them to reintroduce it, so they can hurt Saftote and get one back at them!

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  • Bob Brogan
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Re: Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

10 years 10 months ago
#496439
Not sure anyone was ever prosecuted in the UK for similar, sure a few judges sided with the accused

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  • naresh
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Re: Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

10 years 10 months ago
#496440
Not sure this got anything to do but alot of Pakistanis have been arrested and prosecuted for pirated DVD's here in South Africa.

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  • rob faux
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Re: Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

10 years 10 months ago
#496443
naresh wrote: Not sure this got anything to do but alot of Pakistanis have been arrested and prosecuted for pirated DVD's here in South Africa.

Exactly...............but not sued!

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  • naresh
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Re: Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

10 years 10 months ago
#496449
This is what I got off the web dated 17 March 2014

Piracy case a landmark in SA
17 March, 2014 - 06:01


Safact has ramped up its Internet monitoring unit and will be going after more people who pirate movies. A Cape Town man will appear in the Commercial Crime Court again in the next few weeks, after being charged with illegally uploading a movie onto a torrent site, in a case that is a landmark for SA and has the potential to set a precedent. By Nicola Mawson

Should the Southern African Federation Against Copyright Theft (Safact) be successful in its bid, this would set a precedent and drag copyright law into the digital age, an era it has previously not had much effect over.

Safact CEO Corné Guldenpfennig says this is the first time such a case has been taken to court in SA, and she hopes it sets a good legal precedent. She notes more investigations are ongoing and hopes more arrests will be made – in addition to the recent arrest of an alleged accomplice, also from the Cape Flats.

Majedien Norton initially appeared in court in December, before the case was postponed to 7 April. Charges have been brought against him in terms of the Counterfeit Goods Act.

The copyright law dates back to 1978 and the maximum fine that can be imposed on someone selling pirated software is R5 000 per ripped copy.

The Counterfeit Goods Act dates back to 1998, and for first-time offenders, the fine is no more than R5 000 per article or item, or imprisonment for no longer than three years, or to both a fine and imprisonment.

Professor Iain Currie, from the University of the Witwatersrand, who teaches intellectual property law, notes these laws are underdeveloped and do not take into account the digital age. He says, as a result, Safact has to improvise, which is a bit of a stretch.

Currie says the copyright legislation deals with distribution and is more geared to physical copies than uploading.

As the law stands, end-user piracy is not a crime, as the Electronic Law Consultancy spells out on its Web site: "The big secret is out: software piracy is not a crime when done for private or individual use, and the worst that can happen to the software pirate is he or she may be sued for the value of the licence he or she should have paid... Piracy is not theft, because theft is a crime, piracy is a copyright violation, and only under certain circumstances is this copyright violation a crime."

Guldenpfennig says "uploading is definitely illegal".

Currie says Safact would have faced a problem if Norton had not distributed the movie. He says, should the case be prosecuted successfully, it would mean the outdated laws would be interpreted to cover the digital age.

It is also possible the judge could go so far as to make downloading pirated items illegal, Currie adds.

More arrests

Safact's Internet monitoring unit, which has only been fully skilled for the past six months, will "definitely" pursue other similar cases and it is also targeting Internet service providers and hosting bodies to force them to get pirated movies offline, says Guldenpfennig. The movie has since been removed from Pirate Bay.

Towards the end of last year, the association succeeded in having torrentbox.co.za removed from the Internet, adds Guldenpfennig. She says criminal prosecutions will be sought if there is a need to go that route.

Guldenpfennig says although SA's broadband connectivity is costly, and not as fast as international offerings, Safact cannot sit back and wait until it is beaten by criminals. "Speed and pricing will catch up, but it won't catch us off guard."

Norton, who allegedly uploaded the file, is currently out on R1 000 bail.

Guldenpfennig suspects the ring could be broad and may well point to a serious leak of the film – Four Corners – somewhere. Four Corners was SA's submission for the Oscars, although it was not nominated, and is billed as a "coming of age gang thriller".

Safact represents the broader industry and its members include Nu Metro, Ster Kinekor and Sony.

Nowhere to hide

Guldenpfennig would not reveal details about how the suspect was tracked down, but notes the association keeps a careful watch on marketing pages on Facebook before a movie is set to be released. She says Safact keeps tabs on what people say to see if South Africans have seen the film, and then starts investigating.

If Safact's Internet monitoring unit becomes suspicious, it searches torrent sites, which is usually the first place a leaked film will be posted, says Guldenpfennig. She says it then does a reverse investigation to find the uploader and aims to get the post removed.

Guldenpfennig says many torrent sites are willing to accommodate Safact, especially if it has legal backing and its facts straight. Although tracing offenders online can be tricky, Safact uses social networks and screen names to pin down alleged offenders, she explains.

"People think they can hide on the Internet. Lots of people tell their whole lives [stories] on Facebook."

www.itweb.co.za

Categories: Distribution
Country: South Africa
Content Type: News

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  • Dave Scott
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Re: Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

10 years 10 months ago
#496455
Sounds insane but let the games begin

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  • Bob Brogan
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Re: Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

10 years 10 months ago
#496461
Wonder how they come up with that figure ?

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  • rob faux
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Re: Tellytrack sues Hollywoodbets for R350 million

10 years 10 months ago
#496467
Bob Brogan wrote: Wonder how they come up with that figure ?

It would need to be the % of the turnover required for screening for the period,(ie what they would have paid if accepting Tellytrack terms)and I wonder how they would have got those figures!

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