denverb2b
May 12th, 2002, 12:56 PM
May 10, 2002
Satellite TV dealers fail to win extended injunction against police action
JOHN MCKAY
Canadian Press
TORONTO (CP) - Pedlars of black-market satellite TV technology have lost their latest court effort to stave off RCMP investigations into their business dealings.
An Ontario Superior Court judge declined on Friday to extend an earlier injunction that was designed to hold off any police enforcement of laws against satellite TV piracy. The hearing followed a Supreme Court of Canada decision two weeks ago that seemed to say, once and for all, that the dealers were in clear violation of the federal Radiocommunication Act.
"Our expectation and hope is that the government and RCMP will take this as a starting shot and will move forward very quickly to enforce the legislation," Ian Gavaghan, vice-president and general counsel for Bell ExpressVu, said Friday. The company is one of the country's two officially sanctioned direct-to-home satellite TV services.
But Alan Gold, lawyer for the Canadian Satellite Dealers Alliance, a coalition of Ontario dealers, says he hopes the RCMP will not act before the dealers are scheduled to return to court May 21 with a new approach, this time based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
"If they do start showing up we'll consider our position then."
Joe Varano of Woodbridge, Ont., head of the dealers alliance, said Friday that it was a case of censorship on Bell's part.
"They're trying to tell us what to watch. You either watch Bell or you get cable and that's it. We want the option."
Varano said he's been gathering considerable support for their cause but indicated that they now may go offshore to continue doing business.
The outcome is the latest twist in a convoluted battle that began years ago, before Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice became the country's only officially licensed home satellite TV services and when many Canadian TV watchers were starving for the content available only on foreign services.
After various legal interpretations were handed down in provincial courtrooms, the Supreme Court declared April 26 that anyone who sells technology that allows consumers to effectively hack into the encrypted signals of U.S.-based DTH services, including DireCTV and EchoStar, is breaking federal law.
Bell ExpressVu took the issue all the way to the high court, using a small dealer in B.C. as a test case and alleging Bell was losing millions of dollars in potential customer revenue. Such dealers provide technical equipment - code-breaking numbers, smart cards or even circuit boards - that permit consumers to effectively watch for free U.S. satellite signals not authorized for carriage in Canada.
But right after the ruling, the Ontario dealers group won their seven-day injunction against any police actions, arguing they needed time to prepare a renewed case, one based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That constitutional option, they maintained, was left open to them in the wording of the April high court decision.
Their injunction expired last Tuesday and so it was back to court again, with the injunction being dissolved Friday.
Satellite TV dealers fail to win extended injunction against police action
JOHN MCKAY
Canadian Press
TORONTO (CP) - Pedlars of black-market satellite TV technology have lost their latest court effort to stave off RCMP investigations into their business dealings.
An Ontario Superior Court judge declined on Friday to extend an earlier injunction that was designed to hold off any police enforcement of laws against satellite TV piracy. The hearing followed a Supreme Court of Canada decision two weeks ago that seemed to say, once and for all, that the dealers were in clear violation of the federal Radiocommunication Act.
"Our expectation and hope is that the government and RCMP will take this as a starting shot and will move forward very quickly to enforce the legislation," Ian Gavaghan, vice-president and general counsel for Bell ExpressVu, said Friday. The company is one of the country's two officially sanctioned direct-to-home satellite TV services.
But Alan Gold, lawyer for the Canadian Satellite Dealers Alliance, a coalition of Ontario dealers, says he hopes the RCMP will not act before the dealers are scheduled to return to court May 21 with a new approach, this time based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
"If they do start showing up we'll consider our position then."
Joe Varano of Woodbridge, Ont., head of the dealers alliance, said Friday that it was a case of censorship on Bell's part.
"They're trying to tell us what to watch. You either watch Bell or you get cable and that's it. We want the option."
Varano said he's been gathering considerable support for their cause but indicated that they now may go offshore to continue doing business.
The outcome is the latest twist in a convoluted battle that began years ago, before Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice became the country's only officially licensed home satellite TV services and when many Canadian TV watchers were starving for the content available only on foreign services.
After various legal interpretations were handed down in provincial courtrooms, the Supreme Court declared April 26 that anyone who sells technology that allows consumers to effectively hack into the encrypted signals of U.S.-based DTH services, including DireCTV and EchoStar, is breaking federal law.
Bell ExpressVu took the issue all the way to the high court, using a small dealer in B.C. as a test case and alleging Bell was losing millions of dollars in potential customer revenue. Such dealers provide technical equipment - code-breaking numbers, smart cards or even circuit boards - that permit consumers to effectively watch for free U.S. satellite signals not authorized for carriage in Canada.
But right after the ruling, the Ontario dealers group won their seven-day injunction against any police actions, arguing they needed time to prepare a renewed case, one based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That constitutional option, they maintained, was left open to them in the wording of the April high court decision.
Their injunction expired last Tuesday and so it was back to court again, with the injunction being dissolved Friday.