More than 20 Brazil-based footballers "won damages from the makers of top-selling video games and another 80 are lining up with similar suits that allege they are owed money for image rights," a lawyer for the players said. The players, all of whom play in the Brazilian leagues, are "suing EA Sports and Konami for money they say they are owed" from as far back as '07. Lawyer Joaquin Mina said, "We've won 20 cases so far in the first instance and haven't lost any" (REUTERS, 5/5).
Eleven Sports will reach more fans in Belgium thanks to a carriage deal that will see its recently launched OTT channel, Eleven Sports 3, become available via Proximus' digital TV sports package. The channel was created in April to ease scheduling clashes (Eleven Sports).
Streaming copyrighted material for free on multimedia players such as Kodi "is illegal, the European Court of Justice ruled." Downloading pirated copies of movies, music and TV shows has "always constituted copyright infringement, but streaming the same content was previously a legal grey area." Now the EU Court of Justice has "ruled on the matter" (BROADBAND TV NEWS, 5/7).