After two distributors sued him for copyright infringement, a Canadian “enterprising” pirate agreed with them in court to pay as much as $ 585 million.
In December 2020, satellite TV distributors DISH Network and NagraStar filed a lawsuit against a Canadian named Carlos Rocha. He was accused of running a sizeable illegal business venture and selling illegal IPTV subscriptions, for which they attached evidence of at least 260 such cases. According to the lawsuit, Rocha sold illegal access to channels for which these operators hold property rights and thus caused them damage.
Astronomical compensation
During their investigation, prosecutors found that Rocha led an extensive piracy operation, i.e., that he ran at least a dozen “services” that offered access to illegal IPTV streams under various market names (Simply-TV, SET TV, SolTV, Stream Solutions, BimoTV, TVStreamsNow, OneStepTV, IbexTV, MagnumStreams, Prime Tyme TV, Lazer TV Streams, Griff TV, Flix Streams, CantGetEnoughTV…).
The Florida court was asked to ban him from continuing the activity and to order him to pay compensation – at least ten and 100 thousand dollars for the recorded copyright infringement, i.e., for the device he sold. These days, the lawsuit has been brought to an end, and the plaintiff and the defendant have reportedly reached an agreement. Rocha agreed to pay as much as $ 585 million in damages. Whether this is a tactical legal move, coercion, or a genuine intention to pay the stated amount is unknown.
What is known is that this is not the first crime of this Canadian pirate. In late 2018, his SET TV had to pay the same operator, DISH Network, $ 90 million for the same type of copyright infringement. It was then announced that the service cost $ 20 a month and gave subscribers access to about 500 television channels, including those with on-demand content and pay-per-view content.
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