CTH to sue Apple over Violating Broadcasting rights for EPL
This morning, CTH filed charges against Apple Thailand and Apple USA. CTH are seeking 100 Million Baht in damages for violating broadcasting rights of the EPL. I’m trying to get more information at the moment but it seems they are targeting an app called Sport Channel which is available for both iPhone and iPad. Apparently CTH have tried to contact them twice already but as there was no response they decided to file both a criminal and civil lawsuit. There will be a court hearing on 18th November 2013.
The Sport Channel app costs $29.99 for iPad (reduced from $39.99) and $19.99 for iPhone (reduced from $29.99). The developer seems to be a Thai person called Khun Somsak Boonpetch. I’m not sure if that is a real name or not but the developer’s website is listed as animefc.com which expired last month. The name on the registrar is “Privacy Protect” which is an organization people use to hide their real name and address. There isn’t much information about the app itself. I certainly cannot see anything that says you can watch EPL games. But it does say you can watch sports channels. Obviously news spread that you can watch EPL with this app and it became popular among Thais despite the high price tag.
This is not the first time that CTH has pursed prosecutions against people who are providing applications or a service for watching the EPL inside Thailand. In the past they have targeted people selling Android set-top boxes that have apps for watching the EPL. There has apparently been at least 20 cases so far with the promise of more to come. Apple will most likely stop selling Sport Channel on their store as they have done this in the past for other apps that offer streaming of TV channels. It is interesting to note that Somsak has three other apps which probably also offer illegal content: MovieFC, AnimeFC and CartoonLive. The cartoon one alone advertises they have complete versions of Disney movies that you can watch or download.
I would think that about 90% of all TVs in Thailand that are hooked up to non-“Free to air” channels use a broadcaster that is not 100% legal. Those services that require an internet link (to get updated encryption keys) are one example.
But we don’t use those, do we.
IF CTH target set-top boxes why not ask for a sales stop on all computers, smartphones and tablets. After all we can all watch any game on Veetle, Sopcast, Acestream or Torrentstream.
How does 365sport get around this?