HBO LATIN AMERICA FIGHTS CABLER ON PIRACY

HBO Latin America, which charged in June that WestStar TV, a cable-TV provider operating in the Cayman Islands, had been stealing its signal, said on Wednesday that negotiations between the two sides “have reached an impasse.” In a statement, Miguel Oliva, a spokesman for HBO Latin America, said, “We had hoped that after we explored every possible business scenario with WestStar’s management, they would recognize their violation of international intellectual property rights and would have seen an end to WestStar’s unauthorized interception and rebroadcast of HBO programming in the Cayman Islands.” Published reports have indicated that video piracy is virtually a way of life in the Caymans, with pirated DVDs showing up on shelves of licensed retailers even while the same movies are playing in local theaters. The Cayman News Service editorialized recently: “Granting business licenses to deal in stolen property? Something is seriously wrong when The Caymans’ government not only ignores a particular criminal trade in its midst but goes so far as to grant an official blessing upon it [as] well.”