Pirate IPTV One Box TV to Pay $3.8m Damages to DISH Network

A Florida Court has ordered One Box TV to pay $3.8 million in damages to DISH Networks. One Box TV is an online IPTV service that was apparently streaming DISH Network programs without proper licenses. Dish Network had filed a lawsuit against the company in 2019. The ruling came out on February 06, 2020, after several months of hearings.

Crackdowns against the unlicensed services are nothing new. There have been several such instances in the past such as Gears Reloaded, Openload, OneNation Kodi repo, etc. However, hundreds of such services continue to operate and many new ones keep spawning almost every day.

Even though many have been taken down, most of the unlicensed services somehow manage to remain under the radar. However, One Box TV got the spotlight probably after it decided to become a registered company. One Box TV is registered as LLC in Florida.

One Box TV had been on the radar of Dish Network for a while. DISH Network carried out an extensive investigation and eventually filed a lawsuit in August 2019.

One Box TV had been selling cheap IPTV subscriptions (for less than $20 a month) as well as Android-based TV devices that came preconfigured with their service. The service illegally distributed TV programs from DISH Network and many other TV networks in the USA and from abroad.

Since DISH Network had not authorized One Box TV for the redistribution of their TV programs, the company was in direct breach of the broadcasting and distribution laws as per the Federal Communications Act (FCA).

Multiple counts of violations were rejected (each device sold amounting to one violation) and DISH Network originally claimed statutory damages from $10, 000 to $100, 000 per violation.

According to the investigations, at least 3805 sold units have been accounted for. This puts One Box TV accountable for statutory damages of at least $38.05 million. However, DISH Network has requested reduced damages of $1,000 per unit making it $3.8 million.

DISH Network also requested a permanent injunction against One Box TV, which the court promptly granted. The injunction prohibits One Box TV and its sole manager, Donna Fogle, from rebroadcasting or redistributing any TV program or intellectual property of DISH Network. One Box TV is also forbidden to sell any subscription or devices giving access to DISH Network content.

What does this mean for our readers?

TV Networks are well within their rights to take legal action against unlicensed distributors like One Box TV. However, it is not long before the end users are put on the crosshairs.

We have always advised our readers to appreciate the copyright laws and stream only the content appearing in the public domain.

That said, we also believe you have the right to your privacy. Hence, we strongly recommend our readers to start using a good streaming VPN. The VPN will mask your online identity and give you complete privacy when you stream with third-party services.

In my opinion, ExpressVPN is the best VPN that works flawlessly on all devices. Also, it is the only VPN that unblocks all premium services such as Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, etc. ExpressVPN comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee in case you change your mind later.

News via TorrentFreak.com