Super Sports Media has claimed that Beijing-based news content platform Jinri Toutiao and several Toutiao accounts have infringed on its broadcasting rights of the English Premier League (EPL) in China, allegedly for illegally streaming the 2017/18 EPL season. 

As the 2017/18 season kicked off August 11, it was found that Toutiao, who Super Sports denied as an authorized internet broadcaster, was streaming many clips of the league.

It is understood that the illegally-streamed audio and video are recorded and edited from PPTV, Tencent Sports and Sky Sports. This has also infringed the copyrights of Tencent and Suning-backed PPTV, as the video platform purchased the internet broadcast rights of the 2017/18 EPL in China from the hands of Super Sports.

According to one Chinese intellectual property lawyer, “a content sharing platform has to bear joint liability if it fails in the approval of user generated content.”

Super Sports, co-founded by IDG Capital Partners and Edia Media Inc, has been streaming the English games in mainland China and Macau for the past seven years. 

Source: kejixun

Proofread by William Logsdon