{"id":84562,"date":"2025-08-12T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T09:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=84562"},"modified":"2025-08-12T09:00:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T09:00:52","slug":"netflix-amazon-hollywood-win-15m-judgment-against-u-s-pirate-iptv-operator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=84562","title":{"rendered":"Netflix, Amazon &amp; Hollywood Win $15M Judgment Against U.S. Pirate IPTV Operator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/outerlimits-1-600x359.jpg\" alt=\"outer limits iptv\" width=\"300\" height=\"179\" class=\"alignright size-large wp-image-270788\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/outerlimits-1-600x359.jpg 600w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/outerlimits-1-300x179.jpg 300w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/outerlimits-1-150x90.jpg 150w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/outerlimits-1-220x130.jpg 220w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/outerlimits-1.jpg 771w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">The Internet is littered with cheap IPTV services that offer access to a lot of content, for very little money.<\/p>\n<p>These deals often seem too good to be true and in most cases they are, at least for those who prefer to stay on the right side of the law.<\/p>\n<h2>Netflix, Amazon &amp; Hollywood Sue American IPTV Operator<\/h2>\n<p>To curb this unauthorized activity, several members of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.alliance4creativity.com\/\">ACE<\/a>) filed a lawsuit against the alleged operator of Outer Limits IPTV. Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Disney, Paramount, and other major Hollywood studios alleged widespread copyright infringement.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/hollywood-studios-sue-pirate-iptv-services-in-u-s-court-250305\/\">complaint<\/a>, filed in a California federal court, identified Murrieta resident Zachary DeBarr as the owner of Outer Limits. The \u2018pirate\u2019 service reportedly offered access to over 4,000 live channels and a VOD library of more than 13,000 movie titles and over 3,000 TV series.<\/p>\n<p>DeBarr allegedly promoted the IPTV service through his iTrustStream YouTube channel, which according to the plaintiffs had 100,000 subscribers. DeBarr\u2019s company, iLockSports LLC, was also named as a defendant.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><center><em><\/em><em>From the complaint<\/em><\/center><br \/><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/debarryou.jpg\" alt=\"debarr youtube\" width=\"600\" height=\"392\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-264678\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/debarryou.jpg 956w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/debarryou-300x196.jpg 300w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/debarryou-600x392.jpg 600w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/debarryou-150x98.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The studios listed a long history of infringing actions, dating back to 2017. The defendant allegedly started by selling Firesticks that had been modified to provide access to pirated content. He later moved on to reselling pirate IPTV subscriptions and, more recently, launched his own pirate IPTV service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeBarr makes money by selling subscriptions to his Infringing Service directly to the public, but he pays nothing to Plaintiffs for the copyrighted works he exploits,\u201d the complaint alleged. <\/p>\n<h2>Studios Request Default Judgment<\/h2>\n<p>The Outer Limits IPTV service went dark shortly after the lawsuit was filed. However, despite these serious allegations, the defendant did not appear in court to defend himself, and neither did his company. This prompted the rightsholders to file a motion for default judgment.<\/p>\n<p>The plaintiffs argued that DeBarr engaged in willful copyright infringement, requesting maximum statutory damages of $150,000 for each of the 100 copyrighted works listed in the complaint, $15 million in total. <\/p>\n<p>In addition, the Hollywood studios requested a permanent injunction to stop future infringement and sought to take control of the outerlimitsiptv.com and outerlimitshosting.net domains. An injunction was needed, they argued, as DeBarr might continue his infringing activities in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile it appears the Infringing Service is no longer operational, based on my experience investigating copyright infringers, DeBarr is very likely to engage in infringing conduct again, especially given his long history of piracy,\u201d  MPA\u2019s Bryan Willett wrote in a declaration to the court. <\/p>\n<h2>$15 Million in Damages<\/h2>\n<p>In an order issued on August 4, 2025, Judge Josephine Staton of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California sided with the studios, awarding the full $15 million in damages.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><center><em>$15 Million<\/em><\/center><br \/><center><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/15m.jpg\" alt=\"15m granted\" width=\"600\" height=\"169\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-270790\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/15m.jpg 1490w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/15m-300x85.jpg 300w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/15m-600x169.jpg 600w, https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/15m-150x42.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Court finds the requested amount of statutory damages reasonable in light of the seriousness of Defendants\u2019 infringement and the harm it caused. The nature and scope of Defendants\u2019 conduct indicates that they willfully engaged in egregious copyright infringement on a massive scale,\u201d the order reads. <\/p>\n<p>Judge Staton mentions that DeBarr initially shut down his operation in 2020 in response to a cease-and-desist notice, only to relaunch in 2021 while ignoring further communication from rightsholders. This underscores that his actions were willful.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the massive damages award, Judge Staton also granted a permanent injunction prohibiting DeBarr from infringing the studios\u2019 copyrights moving forward, citing a significant threat of recidivism. The defendant must also hand over his domain names to the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDefendants\u2019 non-appearance in this case, combined with Defendants\u2019 history of willful infringement, convince the Court that there is a significant threat of future infringement,\u201d Judge Staton concludes. <\/p>\n<p>This judgment marks another victory for the studios in their ongoing fight against piracy. While taking one service offline doesn\u2019t do much to limit pirate offerings, they hope that the multi-million dollar judgment, together with other verdicts, will send a deterrent message to other operators. <\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, many of the same studios filed a <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/hollywood-studios-sue-pirate-iptv-services-in-u-s-court-250305\/\">similar complaint<\/a> at a federal court in Pennsylvania. This case targets Mechanicsburg resident Brandon Weibley, the alleged operator of several commercial IPTV services including \u2018Shrugs\u2019 and \u2018Zing\u2019. The case remains pending. <\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update:<\/strong> Judge Staton agreed that an award of attorneys\u2019 fees was warranted. However, she did not approve the initially requested $303,600 calculated under the local rule\u2019s schedule. After billing records were provided, an order for a total of $206,293 in fees was granted today.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A copy of the $15 million default judgment against DeBarr, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, is available <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/defaultorder-1.pdf\">here (civil minutes, pdf)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>From: <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/\">TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wpematico_credit\"><small>Powered by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wpematico.com\" target=\"_blank\">WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Internet is littered with cheap IPTV services that offer access to a lot of content, for very little money. These deals often seem too good to be true and in most cases they are, at least for those who prefer to stay on the right side of the law. Netflix, Amazon &amp; Hollywood Sue [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84562","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\/84562","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=84562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/84563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}