Dish has a growing list of lawsuits targeting IPTV service and a ever increasing number of wins. This week Dish and NagraStar filled another lawsuit targeting multiple IPTV providers including TVStreamsNow and OneStepTV according to a report from TorrentFreak.
Recently Dish won a lawsuit against SET TV an IPTV service that reportedly streamed content owned by DISH without permission. As part of the lawsuit ending SET TV was ordered to pay DISH $90 million. A few months ago Dish also won $2 million more in damages from a SET TV reseller called A-Box TV a website that sold SET TV and was reportedly run by Julie Bishop. Now it seems that Dish wants to use these victories as precedent to go after others.
What is interesting here is that Dish is also suing IPTV providers that have already agreed to turn over their domains to the Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment. (ACE) It seems very clear that Dish wants to make examples out of anyone who runs or even resells an IPTV service that they can find.
This lawsuit from Dish targets the owners and companies behind multiple IPTV services including imoTV, TVStreamsNow, OneStepTV, IbexTV, and MagnumStreams. Dish is claiming these services streamed content that Dish owned exclusive rights to inside the United States. So far Dish has successfully won their fights with IPTV providers and resellers on this ground.
Dish has also started to go after subscribers of IPTV services. Through DISH’s NagraStar’s SatScams.com joint venture DISH this year also began to go after people who stream DISH-owned content through IPTV services.
Here is one example of a story of an IPTV subscriber that was posted on NagraStar’s website recently:
Hello.
I heard about rocket IPTV and set about subscribing to it. I wasn’t positive it was illegal, but I figured it probably was. I went ahead anyway as I had just been disabled and figured I’d have a lot of TV time ahead plus I was pretty broke. It was a bad, wrong idea and if I can pay my way out of this I’ll be glad again. Sadderbutwiser (and poorer!)
Here is one more example of a subscriber who received a letter from DISH’s NagraStar:
I made a mistake. Four years ago, I made a payment to a subscription [service] to watch TV channels. I thought I was not committing any crime. I was wrong. I was watching Dish Network channels including premium channels. I received a certified letter from NagraStar telling me to communicate with them. The staff explained to me very professionally the process to follow to solve the situation. I agreed to a payment plan with them to fulfill my responsibility for the mistake I made. What I have come up with is a lesson in life. I learned to be more cautious with the services they offer online. I recommend not subscribing to any illegal service online. If you have doubt about a service do not subscribe. The consequences are terrible. My recommendation for all the people who have received the letter is that they communicate with NagraStar and assume responsibility in good faith. It is not worth getting into legal lawsuits if an agreement can be reached.
This is likely just the start of lawsuits going after IPTV from Dish and other groups like ACE.
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