Utah federal judge has struck down a $469 million patent infringement verdict against Dish Network. The plaintiff, parental control service ClearPlay, had claimed Dish’s Autohop technology, which allows consumers to skip commercials on Dish’s Hopper DVR, infringed on two patents. EchoStar, the manufacturer of set top boxes containing the feature, is also a defendant in the lawsuit, which was filed in 2014. The court’s decision comes just over a week after a civil jury unanimously ruled in favor of ClearPlay, imposing the original verdict for damages, and Dish filed a motion challenging the outcome.

Have you received a USPS certified letter similar to the one shown in the picture? Here at NagraStar, we send all first letters certified for tracking and legal purposes. These letters contain sensitive information, and for that reason, NagraStar must ensure that the letter reaches its intended recipient. Many choose to deny signing for the letter, and thus it is returned. Commonly, certified mail is sent by lawfirms and government agencies, and refusing the letter could result in legal ramifications. If you receive such a letter, NagraStar highly recommends accepting it. If you choose to ignore these letters and emails from NagraStar, you could be referred to our law firm, HNB, for litigation. Do not ignore the letter, and please contact NagraStar as soon as possible to resolve this legal matter.

​After the FBI shut down his Gears pirate IPTV empire, YouTuber Bill Omar Carrasquillo, aka Omi in a Hellcat, pleaded guilty along with two co-defendants. One was hired by Carrasquillo to work on the service from home. His sentencing memorandum claims that when he tried to quit, gunmen threatened him on two occasions after Carrasquillo said he would kill him. When the federal government shut down pirate IPTV services owned by Pennsylvania and New Jersey man, Bill Omar Carrasquillo in November 2019, it became one of the most high-profile anti-piracy operations ever conducted in the United States.

​In June 2022, the operators of pirate IPTV service Nitro TV were ordered to pay $100 million in damages to broadcaster DISH Network. To recover at least some of the millions made by the service, DISH obtained permission to seize and sell a house worth almost $1 million. After failing to participate in the original lawsuit, the defendants are now trying to defend their house. After being sued by DISH Network in 2021, former Nitro TV operators Alex Galindo, Anna Galindo, Martha Galindo, and Osvaldo Galindo, made no real attempt to fight the lawsuit.

Popular live TV streaming portal USTVGO appears to have shut down its service. A brief message on the site says "Sorry, we are closed," leaving millions of users with plenty of unanswered questions. While the reason for the sudden decision is unknown, rightsholders and anti-piracy outfits already had USTVGO on their radar.​​ With millions of monthly users, USTVGO was one of the most visited live TV streaming portals on the Internet. As its name suggests, the portal focused on US channels, making it a popular site for cord-cutting Americans or those living abroad.

Six months ago MPA-Canada, ACE, and Rogers Media teamed up to shut down IPTV provider SmoothStreams in Canada. The lawsuit already lists 224 records but no trial is expected anytime soon, even if it gets that far. In the meantime, photos of the service's servers and new details of the shutdown operation have appeared in a Federal Court order. When users of popular IPTV provider SmoothStreams.tv began reporting issues with the service mid-July, few could’ve predicted events to follow. Our previous report covers events in finer detail, but essentially SmoothStreams had been under investigation since 2018 and the time had arrived to take it down.

Telegram has complied with an order from the High Court in Delhi by sharing the personal details of copyright-infringing users with rightsholders. The order, which was issued despite fierce opposition, sets a precedent in India. The Court, meanwhile, clarifies that the information can also be shared with the Government and police. With over half a billion active users around the globe, Telegram is one of the most used messaging services. The application is particularly popular in India, where more than 20% of its user base resides. This includes a small subset of rather persistent pirates.

In a joint operation carried out by Spain's Policía Nacional and EUROPOL, a major pirate IPTV service serving half a million users across Europe has been shut down. Police say packages included 2,600 live TV channels and a 23,000-item VOD library, generating annual profits of more than €3 million for the operators. Four people have been arrested and 95 resellers placed on alert. In the wake of Italian police shutting down a 900,000 user pirate IPTV service last week, police in Spain have followed up with an operation of their own.

A man from Denmark has been convicted for playing a key role at Asgaard, a private torrent site that shut down in 2020 following intense legal pressure. In addition to co-founding Asgaard, the 47-year-old was associated with NordicBits, DanishBits and ShareUniversity. His criminal conviction marks the fifth in this investigation, with the fate of two other men yet to be decided. Large public torrent sites, such as The Pirate Bay, RARBG and YTS, attract massive international audiences. By dedicating themselves to a specific niche, smaller torrent sites can also generate significant traction.

Internet provider Grande Communications is liable for the copyright infringements of its subscribers, a Texas federal jury has ruled. The ISP is guilty of willful contributory copyright infringement and must pay a group of prominent record labels $47 million in damages. Three years ago, several of the world’s largest music companies including Warner Bros. and Sony Music sued Internet provider Grande Communications. The recording labels accused the Astound-owned ISP of not doing enough to stop pirating subscribers. Specifically, they alleged that the company failed to terminate repeat infringers.

The owner of pirate IPTV service Marvel Streams UK appeared in court this week expecting to go to prison, but after being handed a suspended sentence, he walked away. While police, the Premier League, and FACT, used glowing terms to announce the "successful" prosecution, it's unlikely to have met expectations, potentially due to a significant change in tactics. This September, TorrentFreak was provided with information relating to Marvel Streams UK, a pirate IPTV service that suddenly disappeared in March 2022. Like many similar services, Marvel Streams offered subscription packages that included live TV channels and a movie/TV show VOD service, all for a cheap monthly price.

The Infringing Website List (IWL) has carried the domain names of thousands of pirate sites since its launch in 2014. Operated by the police, the tool informs advertisers which sites to avoid, thereby starving site operators of cash and forcing them to shut down. The UK government is seeking a partner to explain how more than 1,500 listed sites are still in business. In the belief that pirate sites only stay online when they’re returning a profit, City of London Police decided that deprivation of revenue should be a key strategy in its fight against piracy. Launched in 2014 and controlled by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), the ‘Infringing Website List’ (IWL) carries details of pirate sites nominated by rightsholders and provides the basis for future enforcement via escalating actions.