Sky claims win in Bundesliga piracy case

Two individuals have been sanctioned after a court found them guilty of providing illegal streams of German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland’s coverage of the Bundesliga, the top division of domestic football.

The district court in the German town of Tauberbischofsheim sentenced a 28-year-old man from the federal state of Baden-Württemberg to a one-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of copyright violation in 2014. Another 28-year-old man from Saxony was fined.

Sky said its own investigations helped identify the individuals and allowed the police to act swiftly in arresting the men.

“With this clear verdict of the district court of Tauberbischofsheim, we are once again confirmed in our strategy of continuously and consistently tracking illegal live streams,” Thomas Stahn, head of anti-piracy and technology at Sky Deutschland, said.

“It is an important sign that the judicial authorities take action against such copyright infringement and penalises the offenders with imprisonment or substantial fines.”