Last March, a company was convicted for the first time in Europe for selling pirated decoders; And as if that were not enough, the court issued a second judgment which further increases the amount that those convicted will have to pay.
The case judged by the Pontevedra Provincial Court was a pioneer in Europe, because it was the first time that the Spanish justice system handed down a conviction for the sale of devices intended to access pirated content. The condemned company was Engel Systems SL, initially denounced by EGEDA, Media Pro and Digital+ (the latter now Movistar+)
In this first trial, the commercial company Engel Systems SL and the five defendants belonging to the company were ordered to pay more than 670,000 dollars to the plaintiffs. But the question of the responsibility of these defendants does not stop there.
Decoders for watching football
Now the Pontevedra court has confirmed a second fine, this one of 300,000 dollars additional, as civil liability, against the same convicted persons. The final amount of the sanction thus exceeds 970,000 dollars, close to crossing the psychological barrier of one million dollars.
Concretely, these 300,000 dollars will be distributed between the plaintiff companies; 90,000 dollars will be for Mediapro, another 90,000 dollars for Egeda and finally 120,000 dollars for Movistar+ (DTS), as indicated The voice of Galicia.
According to the indictment, Engel Systems engaged in the sale of pirated set-top boxes. These devices, once connected to the television, were configured to connect to servers in Europe and abroad in order to access pirated content. Among the available payment channels were those that They offered access to football matches, series and films
Some of these servers were located in Barcelona, Malaga and Madrid, as well as countries like Lithuania and Germany. However, one of the company’s tactics to generate revenue was to periodically shut down servers; in this way, forced users to buy new decoders configured to access new servers.
An IPTV decoder
Three of those accused of the plot were found guilty of an offense against intellectual property, receiving a sentence of six months in prison, commutable by a fine of 1,080 dollars. On the other hand, six of the accused received the absolution
Although the sum of the two sentences is historic in Europe, it is a much lower sentence than that requested by the prosecution in the first case, no less than nine years in prison and 18 million dollars in compensation. Ultimately, the commercial company accepted the initial compensation of 670,000 dollars, and the defendants accepted prison sentences ranging from one and a half months to one and a half years, commuted to fines of 7,000 dollars.
