KUALA LUMPUR: Astro intends to take stern action against anyone found guilty of streaming or showing its copyrighted content, its chief sales and marketing officer Tai Kam Leong said.

He said that the company welcomed the positive outcomes of legal and enforcement actions against commercial establishments and individuals who have been conducting such illegal activities.

"Piracy deeply hurts our ability to keep serving fans of our content and erodes our ability to make further investment in premium content for Malaysians," he said in a statement today.

Astro's civil suits include those against an food and beverages (F&B) outlet here and a boutique hotel in Cameron Highlands, in which both enterprises agreed to pay Astro a total of RM55,000 in damages, a public apology in the media and to stop infringing on Astro's copyright.

Both outlets have also agreed to an Astro commercial subscription worth RM53,000 in total.

"Astro's civil claims against these outlets were based on the precedent set by the High Court's landmark ruling that it secured with the Premier League in November 2022, which made it clear that it is illegal for commercial premises to show content to the public from unauthorised sources, including Astro broadcasts without the appropriate commercial licence," he said.

The screening and showing of Astro copyrighted content to the public in business premises without Astro's consent or licence is an act of copyright infringement pursuant to Section 36 of the Copyright Act 1987.

In a separate case, Astro said an individual was fined RM12,000 by the Ampang Session Court for selling TV Boxes with unauthorised Astro content after pleaded guilty to the offence on Feb 16.

The offence was committed by a 26-year-old at an outlet in Ampang, Selangor where he was found in possession of three Android TV boxes, with two boxes preloaded with unauthorised Astro content on March 30 last year. - Bernama