By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Bell Media on Friday filed a lawsuit against hotel channel retransmitters it alleges are illegally restreaming its content.
The alleged restreamers – Technologies Konek inc., Coopérative de câblodistribution Hill Valley, and Libeo – are the same ones that Videotron targeted since February 2021 and won a $500,000 judgment against in May.
Bell is alleging Friday that as early as 2018, the trio have been “developing, advertising and offering various technological services for hotels, including television services which provide unauthorized access to some of the Bell Media Stations, including the CTV, Noovo, and RDS stations and to the Bell Media Programs available thereon.
“The Defendants and the Konek Services are not, and have never been, authorized by the Plaintiffs, or any of their respective affiliates, to communicate, reproduce or distribute, in any territory or by any means whatsoever, the Bell Media Stations and/or the Bell Media Programs to the public by telecommunication.”
Bell said it has notified the defendants in letters dated January 29, 2021, February 18, 2021 and April 21, 2022 of their activities to no avail.
Bell said because of these operations, hotels have no reason to sign up for its own television services, thus causing “significant loss and damages” in amounts greater than $50,000, which it said will grow as the legal process carries on.
Bell refers to Konek as the front end of the operation, selling its services to hotels. The TV box is developed and manufactured by Libeo and Koneck and installed by Konek in the hotel rooms.
“The Konek Boxes are also specifically configured by the Defandants to connect to servers that are hosted and controlled by the Defandants, and that stream unauthorized live broadcasts of certain television stations, including the Bell Media Stations,” Bell said in its complaint.
The boxes are then connected to servers that are allegedly hosted and controlled by the defendants.
It was only in that late May decision that the Federal Court found that Libeo was also liable for damages involved in the operation in which a single signal from Videotron was purchased and then restreamed to multiple hotel rooms at a profit.
Bell argued Libeo has been involved since the inception of Konek. “Libeo has played a key role in the development of the Konek Services, including by developing software components for the Konek Boxes and manufacturing the Konek Boxes.”
It names Louis Michaud, Joe Bussiere and Jean-Francois Rousseau – also targets of Videotron’s lawsuit – as responsible partners, directors, shareholders and directing minds behind the companies.
Bell is asking the court to issue an order permanently restraining the defendants from restreaming the broadcaster’s signals and forcing them to fork over compensatory and punitive damages.
