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Landmark Ruling As Court Orders Block Of These Live Sports Streaming Websites

Fridah Wangechi | 1 year ago
The Safaricom Headquarters along Waiyaki Way in Nairobi. COURTESY
The Safaricom Headquarters along Waiyaki Way in Nairobi. COURTESY

The High Court delivered a ruling on Thursday, June 23, ordering  Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Kenya to permanently block unauthorised live sports streaming websites.

The websites which rely on local ISPs namely Safaricom PLC and Jamii Telecom Limited, compelled giant broadcaster Multichoice Kenya in 2019 to seek orders barring them from pirating sports content over copyright issues.

Justice Wilfrida Okwany during the hearing found the ISPs at fault as the applicant, MultiChoice Kenya, had issued valid take-down notices to them which they had failed to comply without any lawful excuses.

Safaricom in 2020 had successfully sought an appeal to stay a temporary order issued by the High Court barring it from allowing the streaming websites from tapping the copyrighted content.

The landmark ruling will hence compel the telco giant to execute order, and it requested 72 hours to comply with the notices by MultiChoice which was granted by the court.

“A person whose rights have been infringed by content to which access is being offered by an Internet Service Provider may request by way of a takedown notice, that the ISP removes the infringing content.” Section 35B (1) of the Copyright Act stipulates.

MultiChoice in this case was seeking to protect the rights of Supersport, a South Africa-based television satellite which houses DStv and GOtv, that has been at the mercies of unscrupulous streaming sites where they tap into major European football leagues that are then accessed for free by watchers despite its heavy investment to hold the exclusive broadcast and transmission rights.

Among the leagues that attracts huge viewership on the sites include UEFA Super Cup, Championship and Europa Leagues, English Premier League and La Liga.

This hence comes as a blow to the thousands of fans who rely on the sites to catch up on their favourite matches and on the pirated copyrighted content to keep abreast of the happenings in the sporting arena.

The websites blocked include:

1.Totalsportek

2. ronaldo7

3. stream-cr7

4. ripple

5. vipleague

6. livesoccertv

7. livesport

8. soccer-live stream

9. LiveTV 

10. vipbox live

11. sportnews

12. jokerlivestream

13. Cricfree

14. Fullmatchesandshows

15. Vipboxtv

16. liveharleyquinnwidge

17. Messistream

18. Yalla-shoot

19. HD streams

20. Cdn livetvcdn

21. Firstsrowsports

22. Livefootballol

23. Miradetodo

24. Livestream

25.Tvball7

26. Skytivi

27. Freeintertv

28. Vipstand

29. Extremotvplay

30. Stream2watch

31. Oeb

32. Ishunter

33. Myfeed2all

34. Barcelona stream

35. sport stream

36. Cricfree

37. Indiostv

38. Sport365 live

39. Kora-online TV

40. Stream woop

41. Sportzonline

42. Sportv

43. Rojadirecta

44. Cricsports

MultiChoice Kenya Managing Director, Nancy Matimu was one of many who were happy with the outcome of the ruling, stating that a win for the content creators and broadcasters was long overdue in the battle for their copyright protection, asking that other countries fall in line and safeguard their rights

“We have been fighting for years to ensure that there are legal copyright protections and that those protections are enforced. The court has reaffirmed the stance of the law that copyright must be protected.”

“The Kenyan courts have sent a message to the rest of the world that we respect the right of content creators to earn a living from their work,” said Matimu.

“This is a landmark ruling. With this verdict, Kenya is saying that any business looking to invest in Kenya can rest assured that their intellectual property will be protected.” she added.


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