They allege that Marshall Macciacchera and Antonio Macciacchera (son and father respectively) are the owners and operators of SmoothStreams.tv and several additional platforms, including live247.tv, StreamTVNow.tv and StarStreams.tv. According to the plaintiffs, these platforms enabled subscribers to access large volumes of live TV channels and movies, in violation of their rights.<\/p>\n
Injunction and Anton Piller Order<\/h2>\n
In addition to an injunction, the plaintiffs obtained an Anton Piller order, a type of court authorization that allowed them to search premises linked to the defendants and seize evidence. They executed that on July 14 in three locations, reportedly seizing dozens of TV receivers and encoders, plus a number of servers believed to have been used for capturing and redistributing streams.<\/p>\n
Anton Piller orders grant extraordinary powers to those who obtain them but cooperation from defendants isn\u2019t guaranteed, even when supported by an interim order issued by the Federal Court. After being presented with the documents, Antonio refused to read them, declined his consent for the order\u2019s execution, and eventually faced a contempt of court hearing. The outcome of that is yet to be announced.<\/p>\n
Demands for Disclosure of Information<\/h2>\n
According to court records, Marshall\u2019s compliance didn\u2019t match the plaintiffs\u2019 expectations either. The interim order required him to disclose SmoothStreams-related technical information including the source of about fifty unauthorized streams that remained online after the raids took place. It also compelled him to disclose the login credentials for his home computer so that evidence could be preserved.<\/p>\n
Marshall was also ordered to reveal information about other people involved in the SmoothStreams operation who hadn\u2019t already been targeted. An unknown third party gained access to the SmoothStreams system during the execution of the order and the plaintiffs want to include them in the action. The plaintiffs are not satisfied with the defendant\u2019s responses thus far so, as things stand, Marshall also faces a contempt of court hearing, but not anytime soon.<\/p>\n
The Wheels of Justice Turn Slowly<\/h2>\n
A court entry dated September 1, 2022, instructed the parties to discuss the specific grounds for Marshall\u2019s alleged contempt of court. A case management meeting on September 29 heard that the plaintiffs had sent \u201call of the relevant documents\u201d to the defense.<\/p>\n
They are yet to be reviewed but the plaintiffs were reminded that there needs to be full disclosure of any evidence that has the potential to clear Marshall of alleged wrongdoing. The plaintiffs agreed to conduct a review and hand over any additional material by October 14, 2022.<\/p>\n
Finally, Court entries reveal that Marshall may call the plaintiffs and their lawyers as witnesses. Beyond that it\u2019s believed he will seek to disqualify Smart and Biggar, Canada\u2019s leading IP law firm, from acting against him once the matter of contempt is concluded. The Court set a deadline of October 14 for him to do so.<\/p>\n
A virtual case management conference booked for October 25 will discuss the scheduling of the contempt hearing. Lawyers were advised to have access to their agendas because that may not take place until March 2023. When the\u00a0full case<\/a>\u00a0will be heard on the merits is currently unknown.<\/p>\n Source: \u00a0![\"TorrentFreak\"](\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/torrentfreak.png\")
<\/a> TorrentFreak.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"