TORONTO, June 15,
2023 /CNW/ - Asian Television Network International
Limited (ATN) (TSXV: SAT) Canada's
largest South Asian Broadcaster and pioneer broadcaster of Cricket
would like to congratulate The Premier League in the UK on their
success in their battle against organised crime of digital
piracy.
"The individuals behind three pirate streaming organisations,
which offered illegal access to watch Premier League matches, have
today been jailed for a total of 30 years and seven months", the
Premier League reported in its own publication of May 31, 2023.
The same PREMIER LEAGUE REPORT states that In what is understood
to be the world's largest-ever prosecution of an illegal streaming
network, five people were sentenced at Chesterfield Justice Centre,
England, after being found guilty
of conspiracy to defraud, money laundering and contempt of court.
Mark Gould, 36, who masterminded the
operation and was one of the original co-founders, eventually
pleaded guilty to all charges. Gould, who was described by the
judge as the driving force of the conspiracy.
Kevin Plumb, Premier League's
General Counsel, as per the same report stated that: "Today's
sentencing is the result of a long and complex prosecution of a
highly sophisticated operation. The sentences handed down, which
are the longest sentences ever issued for piracy-related crimes,
vindicate the efforts made to bring these individuals to justice
and reflect the severity and extent of the crimes and that this
prosecution was another concrete example of the clear links between
piracy and wider criminality and that those who subscribe and
support the piracy services were effectively supporting individuals
involved in other sinister and dangerous organised crime".
The investigation and prosecution undertaken by the Premier
League was supported by a number of organisations including the
intellectual property protection organisation, FACT as well as
stake holders like SKY and London
Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham and Birmingham City
Council, and the Metropolitan, Lancashire, Gwent, and West
Midlands police services. We were additionally assisted by
the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) and the
Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN).
ATN's General Counsel, Shanti
Shah, observed that "the British have got it just right in
that digital piracy is seen and dealt with as organised global
crime and racketeering and money laundering instead of or in
addition of as a mere infringement of individual or corporate IP
rights and further observed that The Premier League prosecutions
were under The Fraud Act of 2006, a Statute which came
into force in 2007 in England,
Wales and Northern Ireland in 2007 and that a Crown
Prosecution Service (UK) publication, inter alia, points out that
the 'actus reus' requirement related to 'fraud' is far
less onerous than for 'theft' under the provisions of The
Fraud Act 2006".
It needs to be added that the Police has announced that it plans
to visit 1000 households amongst those identified as the
subscribers of pirated products.
"While in recent years damage claims amounting to many Millions
have been awarded by courts for infringement of IP rights, these
are pyrrhic victories as very little of those millions has ever
been collected." said Dr. Shan
Chandrasekar, President and CEO of ATN, and, more
importantly, "The pirates continue to operate in perpetuity wearing
new masks and one wonders if it is a good time to deploy criminal
law process and remedies in Canada".
About ATN-Asian Television Network
International Limited
ATN serves Canada's diverse
cultural communities with over 50 specialty television channels.
The Company offers its flagship ATN-HD general interest service
along with 7 other general interest channels, 3 sports Channels, 7
news Channels, 5 Bollywood movie channels and a variety of channels
that include music, lifestyle, and several regional language
channels that includes Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali, Urdu, Gujarati
& Marathi. ATN has been a pioneer in the Production of
Multicultural Television Programming in Canada. ATN has programming alliances with
leading international broadcasters like Sony Entertainment
Television, Viacom, India Cast, Zee
Network, Doordarshan, Times Television, B4U, NDTV, Republic TV, ABP
News Network, Jaya TV, ARY, FOOD FOOD Network and many more. ATN is
also a pioneer broadcaster of Cricket in Canada and has exclusive broadcast rights for
various International Cricket Boards. ATN has its own State Of The
Art Production facilities. ATN's content is also available on
Amazon Prime in USA & UK, Bell Media's Crave in Canada and also operates a 24X7 South Asian
Radio Service on Sirius XM Radio across The United States and Canada. ATN's high class Studio Facilities
have also been used by Production Companies associated with
Netflix, CBC and others.
For more information please visit www.asiantelevision.com.
We rely on safe harbour provision.
SOURCE Asian Television Network International Limited
