Molloy’s ordered to pay Sky €9,300
It’s understood that live soccer matches involving Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City had been shown in the pub in 2012 and 2013 without Sky’s permission.
Sky representatives had visited the pub in April last year and had requested the owners, Treetop Taverns Ltd, not to make unauthorised broadcasts to public audiences for commercial purposes but to take out a pub licence contract with the company instead.
The company had not responded to the legal proceedings issued by Sky and failed to have any representation in court.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane granted judgment for €9,300 in back-royalties and a permanent injunction against the pub showing Sky Sports programmes without a licence.
A second case of a licensee being found to have breached copyright by showing unauthorised Sky programming content resulted in Thomas Lennon of Leverett & Frye in Carlow’s Dublin Street being ordered to pay €6,528 in damages as well as Sky’s legal costs at Carlow Circuit Court following a successful legal action taken by Sky.
“We will continue to carry out our enforcement campaign against copyright infringement in Ireland to ensure that the thousands of law-abiding pubs and clubs in the region are not left short-changed by a minority of licensees who fraudulently show Sky Sports programmes in their premises,” commented Sky Business’s Deputy Managing Director Alison Dolan after the case.?All bona fide broadcasts of Sky Sport programmes in pubs are accompanied by a ‘pint glass’ symbol at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen to indicate authenticity.
