Court rules in favour of urgent hearing for global mode case
What is an expedited hearing? Barrister Graeme Edgeler explains.
TVNZ, MediaWorks, Sky TV and Spark’s Lightbox have released a statement welcoming a court’s decision for a quick hearing on the global mode case.
The four companies are suing CallPlus, Flip and Orcon and tech company Bypass Network Services for copyright infringement. The case had its first court conference today, with lawyers from both sides meeting before Justice Sarah Katz in the High Court at Auckland.
In a statement, the media companies say they are confident about their legal position and welcome the urgent hearing for certainty’s sake.
The application for a quick hearing was opposed by the defendants, the statement says.
As NBR ONLINE reported earlier, movie studio 20th Century Fox has also joined the case.
No date set yet
Barrister Graeme Edgeler explains the media companies would have had to convince the judge it was in the interests of justice to have it heard early.
However, no date has been set yet.
The lawyer says today’s ruling does not guarantee the case will be held within days, weeks or months.
“When the courts feel it is appropriate for there to be an expedited hearing, they will try to accommodate it as soon as possible.”
“But the longer the hearing is the more difficult it will be,” Mr Edgeler says, adding that the global plus case was unlikely to be a half day affair.
NBR ONLINE understands the expedited hearing strategy is being used because trying for an interim injunction would have been too hard for the media companies given the length of time global mode has already been in market.
The lawyer for the ISPs, Rick Shera, said he had not yet received formal notification of the decision, and could not yet comment.
Victoria Young
Wed, 29 Apr 2015
Wed, 29 Apr 2015
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Court rules in favour of urgent hearing for global mode case
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