Norway

[NO] Cable Operator Found Guilty of Copyright Infringement

IRIS 1995-9:1/11

Ad van Loon

European Audiovisual Observatory

Long negociations between EuroSport and cable operator, Janco Kabel, on the retransmission of the European sport channel's programmes came to a halt since the parties could not agree on the fee to be paid in return for the permission to distribute the EuroSport signal. Janco Kabel though, continued to broadcast EuroSports programmes for two and a half months, according to EuroSport, without any permission.

A Norwegian court found that Janco Kabel had no right to retransmitt the programmes and sentenced the cable operator to pay damages of nearly 1,5 million Norwegian Krones. An appeal is now pending. If the decision is upheld, other cable operators might be affected for the reason that several cable operators in Norsk Kabel-TV Forbund (NKTVF) followed Janco Kabel's example in retransmitting EuroSport after the failure to agree on the conditions of a copyright licence to do so.