Philippines, July 3, 2007 – Members of the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA), through legal counsel, have filed a Motion for Reconsideration at the Court of Appeals in Manila asking for a reversal of an appellate court decision to nullify search warrants issued against Telmarc Cable Corp., a local cable operator, for acts of copyright infringement.
“Protection of intellectual property is our highest concern and piracy is a real threat to the legitimate cable TV industry in the Philippines. The industry has no choice but to energetically appeal the appellate court decision,” says Simon Twiston Davies, Chief Executive Officer of CASBAA. “We believe that a comprehensive look at the evidence submitted to the Regional Trial Court in 2005 will lead the judiciary to reverse its ruling on the search warrants issued by that court,” says Twiston Davies. ¡°This will give the message that the government is serious in its battle against cable piracy.”
CASBAA, which represents some 120 corporations that in turn serve more than three billion people across Asia, was responsible for bringing several cable piracy complaints to the NBI in 2005. It is confident that the Court of Appeals will reverse its rulings based on the strong grounds presented in the appeal.
In its motion for reconsideration, CASBAA maintains that Judge Antonio Eugenio Jr. of the Regional Trial Court of Manila strictly complied with the rules on the issuance of search warrants by personally examining the facts and circumstances presented by National Bureau of Investigation Intellectual Property Rights Division Senior Agent Joel Tovera and other witnesses under oath during the search warrant application hearings.
CASBAA also asserts that after an exhaustive process of probing the merits of the application, the warrants were issued based on real probable cause of illegal and unauthorized decoding, rebroadcast and performance of copyrighted programs from major content providers such as Discovery Asia, HBO, AXN, Buena Vista (Walt Disney Television International) CNN International, Star Group, National Geographic and ESPN Star Sports.
Representatives of the legitimate Philippine cable industry welcomed CASBAA’s decision to appeal. “We believe the case filed by CASBAA is very strong and we are confident that the Court of Appeals will respond favorably,” says Timothy Bautista, Chief Operating Officer of Cable Boss, a major local pay-TV distributor.
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ABOUT CASBAA – www.casbaa.com
The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia is an industry association dedicated to the promotion of multi-channel television via cable, satellite, broadband and wireless video networks across the Asia-Pacific region. CASBAA represents some 120 Asia-based corporations, which in turn serve more than 3 billion people. Member organisations include AETN International (History Channel), Asia Broadcast Networks, Asia Broadcast Satellite, AsiaSat, ASTRO (Malaysia), Australia Network, Bloomberg Television, Chunghwa Telecom, Discovery Networks Asia, Granada International, HBO Asia, Intelsat, Macquarie Bank, MediaFLO, Motorola, MTV Networks Asia Pacific, Nokia, now TV, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sony Pictures Television International, STAR Group, Sun Microsystems, TrueVisions (Thailand), Turner International Asia Pacific, Walt Disney Television International, Zonemedia, Anytime, BBC Global Channels, Asia-Pacific, ESPN STAR Sports, Eurosport, Hallmark Channel, Indovision, Irdeto, Kabelvision, Harmonic, Lovells, ProtoStar, Mabuhay, National Geographic, Paul Weiss, Seagate, Shin Satellite, Standard Chartered Bank, Synovate, Ten Sports, Tata Sky, TimeWarner and Zee TV.
CONTACTS:
Helen Shek / Katie Wong
CASBAA Communications
Tel: +852 2854 9913
Fax: +852 2854 9530
Email: pr@casbaa.com