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14 June 2019Copyright

French court finds Arabsat distributed pirate content

Qatari broadcaster beIN Sports is claiming a major victory after it announced that a French court had found Saudi-headquartered satellite distributor Arabsat to be involved in the alleged piracy operation beoutQ.

According to a beIN press release issued today, June 14, “the purpose of beIN’s case was to establish in a court of law that, despite its denials, Arabsat has been carrying beoutQ’s pirate broadcasts”.

The press release said that the French court ruling had endorsed the accuracy of beIN’s technical reports, which claimed to prove Arabsat’s involvement in distributing beoutQ.

According to the press release, the ruling said: “The reports conclude that the beoutQ channels were available on June 18 and 24, 2018 on frequency 11919 MHz H and frequency 12207 MHz V via the Badr-4 satellite, operated by Arabsat.”

beIN said that it brought the case in the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris because it has been denied legal recourse in Saudi Arabia where Arabsat and, allegedly, beoutQ are based.

“Arabsat has ignored literally hundreds of legal take-down notices from international broadcasters and rights-holders,” beIN said.

Arabsat, headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has consistently denied allegations that it is involved in any way in distributing pirated content.

Yousef Al-Obaidly, CEO of the beIN’s parent organisation, beIN Media Group, said that the ruling of the Paris court “shows that even if we are illegally denied access to justice in Saudi Arabia, we will use every means possible to hold beoutQ and Arabsat to account for their daily theft of rights-holders’ IP”.

In the release, beIN also claimed that it had concluded that all of the 17 matches of the FIFA Women’s World Cup played so far have been illegally broadcast on beoutQ.

This follows the pirating of all 64 matches of the men’s FIFA World Cup held in Russia, beIN said.

The provenance of beoutQ has been a major source of tension between the Qatari and Saudi governments in recent years.

Qatar and beIN have alleged that the Saudi government has tacitly backed the theft of beIN’s IP and, through Arabsat, distributed it across the Middle East and North Africa region.

Saudi officials have consistently denied that the country is in any way involved in backing or distributing beoutQ.

Last July, WIPR  reported that the Saudi ministry of media had hit back at what it called “baseless” accusations that beoutQ was headquartered in Saudi Arabia and that the Saudi government had anything to do with the operation.

“Suggesting that [Saudi Arabia] is in any way complicit in beoutQ’s operation both offends the Saudi people and is a malicious lie,” the ministry said at the time.

WIPR has contacted Arabsat for comment in response to the ruling.

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More on this story

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12 July 2018   Just days before the end of the football World Cup, the sport’s international governing body FIFA has revealed its plan to tackle a pirate site.
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9 July 2018   Saudi Arabia’s ministry of media has denied allegations made by international tennis organisations which claim that the country is the source of pirate site beoutQ.
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18 June 2019   Saudi Arabia-based satellite operator Arabsat has hit back at Qatari broadcaster beIN Media’s account of a French court ruling in a lawsuit between the companies last week, as both parties continue to claim victory in the case.