{"id":64698,"date":"2022-05-29T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T09:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=64698"},"modified":"2022-05-29T09:00:42","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T09:00:42","slug":"sued-iptv-operator-is-curious-about-mpas-involvement-with-torrentfreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=64698","title":{"rendered":"Sued IPTV Operator is Curious About MPA\u2019s \u201cInvolvement\u201d With TorrentFreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IPTV\"<\/a>In December 2021, movie and TV giants Universal, Disney, Paramount, Warner and Columbia, plus Netflix, Amazon, Apple and several other studios filed a lawsuit against Texas resident Dwayne Anthony Johnson.<\/p>\n

According to the plaintiffs, Johnson is behind IPTV services AllAccessTV (AATV) and Quality Restreams. The complaint<\/a> states that AATV offered subscription access to infringing movies and TV shows via its IPTV and VOD services, delivering content such as The Godfather, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, and The Office, without appropriate licensing. <\/p>\n

Quality Restreams allegedly provided infringing content to other IPTV providers, including AATV, via live IPTV channels and a VOD service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result is unauthorized television and movie content streamed over the Internet in a manner that directly competes with, and undermines, authorized cable and Internet streaming services,\u201d the complaint added.<\/p>\n

In February 2022, the parties agreed to a preliminary injunction<\/a> in a California district court that restrained and enjoined Johnson (and anyone acting in concert with him) from operating AllAccessTV and Quality Restreams (or any similar service) that may infringe the plaintiffs\u2019 rights. <\/p>\n

Importantly, this was jointly agreed on the basis that Johnson denies liability and makes no admission of liability by agreeing to the preliminary injunction.<\/p>\n

Joint Report to the Court<\/h2>\n

Late last week the parties submitted a joint scheduling report which summarizes the key legal issues in the lawsuit as follows:<\/p>\n

\n

(i) whether Defendants are liable for the unauthorized transmission and performances of Plaintiffs\u2019 Copyrighted Works to members of the public on a mass scale, in violation of Plaintiffs\u2019 exclusive rights to publicly perform the Copyrighted Works, 17 U.S.C. \u00a7 106(4)<\/a>;
\n(ii) whether Defendants are liable for infringing upon Plaintiffs\u2019 exclusive reproduction rights through the unauthorized copying of the Copyrighted Works for Defendants\u2019 24\/7 channels and VOD offerings, id. \u00a7 106(1); and
\n(iii) whether Defendants are secondarily liable for the infringement of Plaintiffs\u2019 exclusive public performance and reproduction rights in the unauthorized copying of the Plaintiffs\u2019 Copyrighted Works, including by creating and growing a network of resellers who promote and sell the infringing services.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The report notes that the plaintiffs have not yet decided whether they will seek actual damages or statutory damages but if past lawsuits offer any guidance, statutory damages seem most likely. Proving specific losses suffered by the plaintiffs can be difficult, if not impossible, so a round figure of $150,000 per infringement can be a more simple solution.<\/p>\n

The document further states that the plaintiffs are likely to move for summary judgment on the issue of Johnson\u2019s liability. Johnson does not anticipate filing summary judgment motion(s) but reserves the right to file \u201cdispositive motions\u201d moving forward, i.e he may attempt to dispose of some or all of the claims against him.<\/p>\n

In the meantime the parties are planning for discovery, seeking information from each other and third parties that could potentially help them progress or defend this lawsuit. The requests begin by seeking the type of information one might expect and then progress in an unexpected direction.<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs\u2019 and Defendants\u2019 Discovery Demands<\/h2>\n

On the side of the studios, the anticipated initial demands seem standard enough. They want to seek third-party discovery from individuals or entities, who, along with Johnson, \u201callegedly own or operate the infringing services of AATV and Quality Restreams\u201d.<\/p>\n

The defense anticipates discovery on the plaintiffs\u2019 ownership of the allegedly-infringed copyright works, their claims of infringement, and any investigation of the same. <\/p>\n

Specifically, the defense seems keen to learn more about the Motion Picture Association\u2019s (MPA) involvement in the investigation, which may loop back to their earlier concerns (pdf<\/a>)<\/em> that key evidence provided by MPA anti-piracy chief Jan van Voorn was \u201cbiased\u201d and \u201cinaccurate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the defense also seeks access to monetary judgments, settlement agreements, and other documents relating to payments received by the plaintiffs as a result of other copyright infringement lawsuits. Whether these will be handed over is unclear at this stage but given their sensitive nature, it seems unlikely they will appear in public filings. They would be interesting to read, however.<\/p>\n

And That\u2019s Not All\u2026.<\/h2>\n

In addition to seeking details of any agreements between the plaintiff studios and the MPA, to our surprise (and presumably to the plaintiffs\u2019 too) this news publication suddenly gets thrown into the discovery mix. <\/p>\n

For reasons best known to the defense, they say they will also seek access to \u201cdocuments relating to Plaintiffs\u2019 and\/or the Motion Pictures Association\u2019s relationship and involvement with https:\/\/torrentfreak.com.\u201d<\/p>\n

Far be it from us to steal the thunder of the MPA and the world\u2019s leading movie and TV show companies, but any documents produced, if any, will be particularly unspectacular. Any communications with any of the above entities consist of requests for comment on news articles and their responses, if any.<\/p>\n

We never seek comment or communication on IPTV, torrent or streaming-related lawsuits as the dockets speak for themselves. And as far as AATV and Quality Restreams is concerned, nobody has discussed anything with any of the plaintiffs or the MPA, at any point \u2013 ever. <\/p>\n

That being said, we imagine the MPA being extremely<\/em> flattered at the mere suggestion of having an intimate relationship with us but, after 17 years of absolute editorial independence, we really enjoy the freedoms of single life. We\u2019re both sorry and happy to disappoint. <\/p>\n

Joking aside, it\u2019s interesting that our close reporting of publicly available, copyright-related lawsuits sometimes attracts attention from the parties involved, on both sides. The plaintiffs in a major music industry copyright lawsuit are currently keen to ensure that potential jurors aren\u2019t readers of this publication<\/a>, for reasons unknown. <\/p>\n

The joint report can be found here<\/a> (pdf) and Area 51 can be found here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In December 2021, movie and TV giants Universal, Disney, Paramount, Warner and Columbia, plus Netflix, Amazon, Apple and several other studios filed a lawsuit against Texas resident Dwayne Anthony Johnson. According to the plaintiffs, Johnson is behind IPTV services AllAccessTV (AATV) and Quality Restreams. The complaint states that AATV offered subscription access to infringing movies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}