EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

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For the first time in Latvia, a person has been convicted of illegal retranslation of television content. The TV pirate has been sentenced to 200 hours of community service and has to compensate the material loss caused to the victims — TV3 and Latvijas Neatkarīgā Televīzija (LNT).

In total, 135 administrative examinations have been carried out and 48 administrative violations cases have been initiated last year, suggesting of more efficient work by the State Police both in the preparation for examining and actual examining of the legality of audiovisual content.

As underlined by the Chief of the State Police, General Ints Ķuzis, the aim of the police last year was to develop methodology and tactics, he states that Internet is just like a road where the public order is disturbed sooner or later if there are no police patrols.

Last year the State Police has terminated operation of two film streaming sites that were the largest ones in Latvia and published around 2000 films each without any licence. The total number of registered users in these sites was almost 42,000. One of the sites had received even more than 1 mln film watching requests a month.

Inspections carried out by the police in public places in 2018 to check if live sport shows are broadcast legally have increased the merchants’ awareness on the necessity to receive licences. As pointed out by Dace Kotzeva, Executive Director of the association “For legal content!”, the proactive social campaign “Don't fool yourself — you’re stealing!” launched last year made the users of illegal content wake up and think. “When the police turn against illegal content supplier be it an illegal television connection at home or in a public place during a live sport broadcast, the person suffering most is the user or sports fan who is left without television and internet and who is frustrated at the interrupted broadcast.” D.Kotzeva says that currently merchants are rather active in applying for licences for live sport broadcast to ensure legal broadcasting. The number of licences issued for the much-awaited boxing matches increased three times in comparison with 2017.

Association “For legal content!”

The goal of the association “For legal content!” is to actively fight against television and film distribution without the permission of the producer or supplier and to facilitate legal broadcasting on the telecommunications market. The association was established on 7 October 2015 by providers of television services and producers of audiovisual content: SIA Lattelecom, SIA Baltcom, ĀKF AS TV PLAY BALTICS LATVIJAS FILIĀLE, SIA Baltijas Mediju Alianse and SIA Forum Cinemas, members: provider of mobile communication BITE LATVIJA, SIA ACME FILM, operator of orbital satellites SES ASTRA AB, Latvian Performers’ and Producers’ Association (LaIPA), WIDE MEDIA LLC, SIA Dautkom TV, SIA Ostkom and the Latvian authors’ association “Copyright and Communication Consulting Agency/ Latvian Authors Association”