The world's largest producers of Chinese media content, TVBO Productions and Television Broadcasts (TVB), have told the Australian Federal Court that despite scepticism from Justice Nicholas, there is actually more evidence of piracy in this case because content is being infringed "24/7" and in multiple ways.
According to counsel for TVB, there are six categories of content being accessed: Pre-recorded films made by TVB; pre-recorded films made by a third party but exclusively licensed by TVB in Hong Kong but not in Australia; a mix of pre-recorded films and live TV; live content that is read from script; non-scripted live TV; and content with a non-exclusive licence -- with the latter two categories not relevant to the copyright infringement case.
"[There is a] multitude of copyright works on a daily basis that are being infringed ... this is a large-scale infringement that is occurring on these boxes -- five channels on a constant basis," counsel for TVB said on Wednesday morning.
"The vast majority of films that are being reproduced and communicated ... are infringing," he added, stating that around 51 percent of all TVB content being consumed via the set-top boxes in Australia are TVB-made and TVB-exclusive licensed films -- higher when taking into account the mixed category of pre-recorded films and live TV.
This therefore fulfills the primary purpose test, TVB argued.
"The evidence shows that in terms of the films that have been communicated, copyright is owned either by TVB or by third parties, and that neither TVB nor the third parties have licensed it," counsel said.
In getting past the stumbling block presented during the hearing[1] last month that live Chinese TV broadcasts do not constitute copyright infringement when viewed in Australia, counsel argued that the live TV streams