Master supplier of online pirate TV services in USA sued

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Master supplier of online pirate TV services in USA sued

Post by tvroadmin » Wed Feb 27, 2019 10:02 am

Hollywood tries to cripple several alleged pirate TV services in one lawsuit
JON BRODKIN - 2/19/2019, 3:09 PM

"Omniverse" sells illegal streams to several online TV services, lawsuit says.
Most of the major Hollywood movie studios are trying to cripple multiple alleged pirate TV services with a single lawsuit.

The studios last week filed a copyright infringement suit against Omniverse One World Television Inc., which provides streaming video to several online TV services. Omniverse claims to have legal rights to the content, but the studios say it doesn't.

The complaint was filed Thursday in US District Court for the Central District of California by Columbia Pictures, Disney, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros. The studios previously used lawsuits to shut down the maker of a streaming device called the Dragon Box and another called TickBox. The studios' new lawsuit says that Omniverse supplied content to Dragon Box and to other alleged pirate services that are still operating.

"Defendant Jason DeMeo and his company, Omniverse, stream Plaintiffs' copyrighted movies and television shows without authorization to an already large, and rapidly growing, number of end users," the lawsuit said. "Defendants are not, however, just an infringing, consumer-facing service, akin to Dragon Box. Defendants operate at a higher level in the supply chain of infringing content—recruiting numerous downstream services like Dragon Box into the illicit market and providing them with access to unauthorized streams of copyrighted content. Defendants function as a 'hub' of sorts, with the enlisted downstream services as the 'spokes.' Omniverse's offering is illegal, it is growing, and it undermines the legitimate market for licensed services."

Services using Omniverse content are advertised as "Powered by Omniverse." Besides Dragon Box, they include "SkyStream TV, Flixon TV, and Silicon Dust's HDHomeRun Service," according to the lawsuit.

SkyStream, for example, offers more than 70 live TV channels for $35 a month, while pricier packages, according to the complaint, also include premium channels such as HBO. SkyStream's website says its service "is delivered In Cooperation with Omniverse One World Television."

According to its website, Omniverse "partners with key distributors across the USA to empower end users with the ability to view their favorite TV channels with no contracts, no credit checks, and no long-term obligations."

Omniverse vague about licensing details

A recent Cord Cutters News article that was cited in the lawsuit examined whether Omniverse has the rights to distribute the content. The article said:

"With the flood of services all pointing to Omniverse, it has raised questions about how legal this is. Some of these services seem to operate under different rules than most live-TV streaming services.

According to Omniverse, they acquired rights to some of these channels including the ability to stream outside by a contract that is only one of three such contracts in the United States. When pushed on that contract, Jason [DeMeo] said they could not give too many details or it could help others figure out how to track down the last two contracts like the one they use.

Jason went on to say they are in the process of buying the rights to the other two contracts that would allow others to create similar services. According to Omniverse, once they close on the rights for the other two contracts they promised to be more open about their current contracts."


But the movie studios' lawsuit alleges that Omniverse has no rights to distribute their video content. While Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, YouTube TV, and other legitimate streaming services purchase rights to the content, Omniverse has not, the lawsuit said.

"Plaintiffs have not granted licenses that permit Defendant DeMeo or Omniverse to stream the Copyrighted Works or sublicense streams to whatever counterparty they wish," the complaint said. "These services are unauthorized and compete unfairly with licensed services. They offer premium content (including HBO, Showtime, and other channels) and technical features (such as DVR capabilities and simultaneous streaming to different devices), and compete directly with licensed services, but often at a lower price. Their unfair competitive advantage is attributed directly to Defendants, who provide the downstream services with streaming access to the Copyrighted Works without the licensing obligations that would ordinarily need to be met."

Besides providing content to other services, Omniverse also used to offer its own video device directly to consumers, the complaint said. The device was called the "OmniBox," and it "offered access to hundreds or thousands of live and on-demand channels for less than $25 per month, plus the one-time hardware cost of the OmniBox," the complaint said.

The complaint asks for an injunction shutting the company down and damages of up to $150,000 for each infringed work.

We contacted DeMeo today about the lawsuit and will update this article if we get a response.

UPDATE: Omniverse responded to the lawsuit in a press release that says it "disagrees with the substance and the specifics of the allegations." The statement continued:

"Omniverse believes there is no place in the industry for media pirates and, consistent with the plaintiffs, believes their legitimate business has been harmed by the unlicensed distribution of media content.

Consistent with our shared goals for the industry, Omniverse intends to engage quickly and constructively with the plaintiffs and their legal counsel to resolve their concerns with Omniverse's business and where possible support them in their greater goal of eliminating piracy from our industry. It is our belief that when this process is complete, that both sides will be satisfied with the outcome."


Omniverse's statement did not provide any specific response to the lawsuit's allegations.

In a similar case, the studios and Amazon and Netflix have a pending lawsuit against Set TV, which offered a $20-per-month TV service with more than 500 channels. Set TV shut down after the lawsuit was filed.

Source

Omniverse Lawsuit

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Re: Master supplier of online pirate TV services in US sued

Post by tvroadmin » Wed Feb 27, 2019 10:22 am

I guess most of those $10 per month iptv services will be going down very soon. Even more important, who is behind this mass piracy? Jason DeMeo is a nobody, a fall guy for someone else higher up the piracy food chain. You just don't wake up one morning and start distributing hundreds of premium TV channels and thousands of PPV movies out of the blue. Look at Rainer, :bottle they can't even get a single contract for any of the premium content that was being distributed by Omniverse.

The lawsuit doesn't state how the pirated programming originates. So, either the programmers don't know yet and are moving up the piracy food chain, or this smells of a conspiracy by the programmers themselves. If it is the former case, then a big industry player who already has access to the programming is involved. If it is the latter, then all this iptv piracy stuff was a massive propaganda stunt by the programmers themselves to promote streaming. The goal has now been achieved and they are shutting down these illegal services and hoping those affected subscribe to one of their overpriced "legal" streaming services.
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Re: Master supplier of online pirate TV services in USA sued

Post by rusty » Wed Feb 27, 2019 11:40 am

All major studios involved just like with SetTV. :machinegun

Disney Enterprises, Inc., Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Universal Content Productions LLC, Paramount Pictures Corp., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Universal Television LLC, Columbia Pictures Industries Inc and Universal City Studios Productions LLLP

Dishnetwork also sued SetTV. They were stealing the live tv from dishnetwork. Probably same here, but I didn't find a dish/nagra lawsuit at justia. Maybe Charlie is slow to file? :biggrin
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Re: Master supplier of online pirate TV services in USA sued

Post by expresso » Wed Feb 27, 2019 2:34 pm

Seemingly legit companies like HDHomerun are also engaging in piracy if this is all true. Even the DOD is using omniverse to stream pirate content to US military troops. :lol:

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/the-us- ... -families/

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Re: Master supplier of online pirate TV services in USA sued

Post by rusty » Fri Mar 01, 2019 10:53 am

Being reported that HDHomerun channels are down if anyone has this service and I wouldn't count on them coming back. :rotflmao:

Programmers are mad. :reallyangry
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Re: Master supplier of online pirate TV services in USA sued

Post by harris » Sat Mar 02, 2019 9:52 am

Never tried these. If you lost your IPTV, try Dr.Sat. I get all Bell/Dishnetwork channels.

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