International Broadcasters and DISH Win Lawsuits Against Shava TV, Cres IPTV, and Lool IPTV
April 20, 2017 — The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) congratulated a number of its members for winning a lawsuit against Imran Butt and Naeem Butt, who both operated the Shava TV and Cres IPTV over-the-top streaming services and sold IPTV boxes that retransmitted television channels and used programmer logos without permission. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to stop the unauthorized digital streaming and distribution of South Asian and Arabic television channels in the United States. IBCAP members who filed the lawsuit sought to protect their copyrights in channels such as Sony Entertainment, Star Plus, Aapka Colors, Zee TV, ARY Digital, B4U, Geo TV, Channel-I, ATN Bangla, MBC, Al Jazeera, Iqraa and Murr TV. In addition to an injunction prohibiting the continued infringement of plaintiffs’ rights in their copyrights and trademarks, the court also awarded $25,650,000 in damages against Imran Butt and Naeem Butt. IBCAP also applauded enforcement of the order against retailers and other sellers of the Shava TV and Cres IPTV services.
A similar judgment was reached last month when the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled that the owners of the Lool IPTV service unlawfully streamed international television channels to users in the United States. The court also found that Lool violated exclusive rights by encouraging the use of Lool IPTV boxes to share pirated content between users. This decision also impacts dealers who promote or sell the Lool devices and the ISPs that support the service, and enforcement of the order will work to end use of the Lool IPTV service in the United States.
“The outcome of these lawsuits is another important message that unlawful transmissions of copyrighted content will not be tolerated,” said Chris Kuelling, Executive Director of IBCAP, a coalition formed to prevent the unauthorized distribution of international television content. “These lawsuits once again demonstrate that content owners can successfully fight against digital streaming piracy to protect customers from unauthorized services,” Kuelling concluded.
A copy of the filing against the Shava and Cres IPTV services in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia can be found here.
A copy of the filing against the Lool IPTV service in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas can be found here.