Lawsuit 1: Shrugs and Zing<\/h2>\n
The first case was filed at a federal court in Pennsylvania, listing Mechanicsburg resident Brandon Weibley as the alleged operator of several commercial IPTV services that offered pirated streams.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"weibley\"](\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/penncourt.jpg.webp)
<\/picture><\/center> <\/p>\nThe complaint notes that Weibley has a long history of illegally profiting from pirated content and engaging in mass copyright infringement. This activity goes back to 2017, when he registered the domain beastmodebuilds.com and began selling subscriptions to infringing streaming services.<\/p>\n
In the years that followed, the defendant was linked to various IPTV brands, such as Beast Mode Live, BTV, Viking Media, and GreenWing Media. These sold subscriptions, offering access to hundreds of pirated TV channels including international content and live sports events.<\/p>\n
Cease and Desist<\/h2>\n
While the defendant made efforts to conceal his identity, investigators followed a digital trail that led to his personal email address. This address was listed in the source code of the invoices sent to subscribers via Cashapp.<\/p>\n
In December 2023, the movie studios eventually confronted Weibley, demanding that he cease the copyright infringing activities. However, this advance warning didn\u2019t lead to the desired result.<\/p>\n
The defendant allegedly switched the operation to a different domain name, vonwik.com, and continued to offer thousands of TV channels through the pirate IPTV services, which were rebranded to \u2018Shrugs\u2019 and \u2018Zing\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWeibley now provides subscribers to the Current Infringing Services with access to more than 9,000 pirated channels, featuring Plaintiffs\u2019 television series and movies, as well as international content and live sports events. This is infringement of Plaintiffs\u2019 copyrighted works on a massive scale,\u201d Plaintiffs write.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"shrugs](\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/shrugs-zing.jpg.webp)
<\/picture><\/center> <\/p>\nThese pirate IPTV services continue to harm the movie industry, plaintiffs allege, and they hope that the lawsuit will help to bring an end to it. In addition to an injunction, requiring the IPTV services to shut down, the rightsholders also demand damages.<\/p>\n
The legal paperwork lists examples of more than 50 copyrighted works, including The Boys, The Witcher, Forrest Gump, Moana, Back to the Future, and Wonder Woman. With a maximum of $150,000 per infringed work, the potential damages could easily reach millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
Lawsuit 2: Outer Limits IPTV<\/h2>\n
Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, a second lawsuit was filed in a California federal court yesterday. This case is again managed by ACE, acting on behalf of several Hollywood players. In this case, Apple also makes an appearance as one of the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs allege that Murrieta resident Zachary DeBarr is the owner of Outer Limits IPTV. This \u2018pirate\u2019 service offered access to over 4,000 live channels and a VOD library of more than 13,000 movie titles and over 3,000 TV series.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"debarr](\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/outerlimits.jpg.webp)
<\/picture><\/center> <\/p>\nThe defendant has allegedly been involved in reselling pirate IPTV services and tools since 2017. DeBarr purportedly sold modified Fire TV Stick devices, as well as subscriptions to the pirate streaming services Nitro TV and Glitch TV.<\/p>\n
Plaintiffs allege that, in 2020, the defendant started his own IPTV service under the Outer Limits IPTV brand. These subscriptions were sold for $20 per month to $200 per year.<\/p>\n
iTrustStream YouTube channel<\/h2>\n
The complaint further notes that DeBarr owns the iTrustStream YouTube channel, which has over 100,000 subscribers. In the past, he allegedly used the YouTube audience to publicly promote his Outer Limits IPTV service.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeBarr regularly posted video content and engaged with listeners during live-chat discussions on YouTube. Several of the videos uploaded to the iTrustStream YouTube channel from 2020 feature DeBarr promoting Outer Limits,\u201d the complaint reads.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0YouTube video<\/a>\u00a0highlighted in the complaint, linking to the Outer Limits IPTV service, is still online at the time of writing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Before filing the lawsuit, the movie companies, presumably through ACE, repeatedly tried to get in contact with the defendant to resolve the matter out of court. All attempts to contact DeBarr in-person, over the phone, and via email were ultimately unsuccessful.<\/p>\n \u201cDeBarr has not responded to any of Plaintiffs\u2019 communications, thus forcing Plaintiffs to file this lawsuit so they can protect their rights and prevent DeBarr\u2019s ongoing infringement,\u201d the complaint reads.<\/p>\n Similar to the Weibley case, DeBarr is accused of copyright infringement on a massive scale. The movie companies request an injunction to stop this activity, as well as statutory damages, which can potentially run into the millions of dollars.<\/p>\n The lawsuits filed yesterday are similar but unrelated. This is also stressed in a\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0by the Motion Picture Association\u2019s anti-piracy arm ACE, which appears to manage the legal effort.<\/p>\n \u201cThese lawsuits demonstrate ACE\u2019s unwavering commitment to protecting the creative industry from digital piracy from coast to coast and around the world,\u201d says MPA\u2019s Senior Executive Vice President, Karyn Temple, commenting on the action.<\/p>\n \u201cIllegal IPTV services not only harm creators and legitimate streaming platforms but also expose consumers to potential security and fraud risks. We will continue to take decisive legal action to shut down these operations and hold infringers accountable,\u201d Temple adds.<\/p>\n \u2014<\/em><\/p>\n A copy of the complaint against Brandon Weibley, filed in the filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, is\u00a0available here (pdf)<\/a>. The complaint against Zachary DeBarr, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California can be\u00a0found here (pdf)<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Source: \u00a0![\"debarr](\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/debarryou.jpg.webp)
<\/picture><\/center> <\/p>\nMPA and ACE Take the Lead<\/h2>\n
![\"TorrentFreak\"](\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/torrentfreak.png\")
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