The Kenya Copyright Board has announced that a man has been jailed for copyright infringement over copyright infringement.
The man, Mr Peter Imbati Esiaba was yesterday jailed for 5 years by Nairobi’s Chief Magistrate, Hon H. Onkwani for distributing decoders that streamed content that infringes on DStv rights. Mr Peter Imbati was also ordered to pay a Kshs 400,000 fine if he manages to escape the jail term.
According to the Kenya Copyright Board, Mr Imbati was charged on this count on November 14th 2013 at BuruBuru Shopping Centtre in Nairobi. Jointly with others, he was found distributing and infringing DStv broadcast signals while the copyright subsists in the name of Multichoice Kenya Limited. If you don’t know already, Multichoice is the parent company for DStv, which is a popular satellite broadcasting company that has been operating in Kenya for a very long time.
Mr Imbati also faced a second charge that day when he was found in possession of 20 IGO satellite receivers, two ‘I free’ satellite receivers, two internet switches, three Televes split band amplifiers and among other items which were used for transmitting and receiving and infringed on Multichoice Kenya’s DStv’s broadcast signals.
The team was able to dismantle their network and took away their decoders, modulators and other equipment that the suspects used to distribute illegal signals in the township.
This announcement follows a move by the Copyright Board, Kenya Police and Multichoice when they also took their campaign against piracy in Garissa where they arrested three people for their participation in illegal signal distribution.
