StarNet and the multimedia distributor TV BOX said that they pay tens of millions of lei for copyright and the product they distribute is an absolutely legal one. Representatives of the companies presented contracts and other documents confirming these statements in a news conference at IPN.
StarNet marketing director Alexei Munteanu told the journalists that the accusations of disloyal competition and piracy made against the company are groundless. StarNet has signed 151 contracts, which is exactly the number of channels included in its package, while the copyright on these channels belongs to the partner TV BOX. Over three years, period during which StarNet has provided the IPTV service, TV BOX paid over 17 million lei for copyright.
Now they pay about 1 million lei a month. “The cost of copyright increases gradually, depending on the number of subscribers, as our costs do,” said Alexei Munteanu. He added that StarNet will sue the persons who discredit it and will demand 1 million lei damages.
The company’s jurist Eugeniu Macari said that StarNet won the cases in all the courts, every time it was sued. Problems appear because the Moldovan legislation does not envision and does not regulate this type of services. “We made calls to communicate with the authorities so that they adjust the legal framework. But our dialogue led to stricter inspections on the part of the authorities,” said the jurist.
President of the StarNet concern Alexandru Machedon believes that the accusations against the company are made because some of the businessmen working in this field do not keep pace with the modern technology and resort to disloyal competition in order not to lose their clients.
StarNet does not retransmit the TV channels directly to the clients. The media content is provided by TV BOX. The representatives of StarNet assured that they will continue to provide services of a high quality and will not resort to disloyal competition, but will protect their image.
StarNet is the first company that makes public the contracts for copyright for the distributed content. The contracts will be available on the company’s official website.
